Friday, September 10, 2010

#20 - Rediscovery (ies)

Omygeezumcrow.

I have been on a ridiculously ridiculous remarkable cross game rediscovery.

AND I AM LOVING IT.

Seriously, I can safely say with utmost assurance that my favourite anime and my favourite manga is cross game. Like, 100% hands down no sweat total absolutely with all of my heart.

(Of course, in second place, for both anime and manga, would be FullMetal Alchemist. :D )

Aaaaanyways.

Cross Game is like the understated understatement of the...century. Seriously, there's so little hype and hoorayness for such a brilliant masterpiece of absolute briliant geniusness.

(As you can see I am not coherent anymore because it's so gigantumly awesome.)

It's quietly beautiful.
Sincerely moving.
Patiently amusing.
Refreshingly subtle.
Silently bold.
Surprisingly tender.
Suddenly exciting.

Oh well I could go on forever, but you know.

SO DIFFERENT from all those

-lets-go-fight-some-dude-and-try-to-look-cool-with-a-massive-ass-sword/katana/gun/weapon of choice-while-making-new-ass-kicking-friends-who-help-defeat-badguy- *cough*bleachnarutoonepiecefairytail*cough*

things, or even

-omg-its-a-magical-girl-who-can-transform-with-the-power-of-love/magic/friendship/singing- *cough*mermaidmelodycardcaptorshugocharaohthere'sthousandsofthemomg.*cough*

seriously cross game is a masterpiece. Because it's not overly dramatic, or over the top with romance, or even over the top with baseball. There's no..superpowers, or kissing or whacking up your enemies with a sword.

It's not just the story, though. Adachi's paneling, character designs and sceneries transform a simple story into a spectacular ..... piece of art. The smooth lines and quiet tones are gooooorgeous. Aaaaand of course, his dialogue - to die for. Seriously. They're so normal, it's honestly amazing. I mean, usually, in manga, we get either:

A dramatic scene. There's rain. The heroine is drenched. She's got humongous eyes, like a frog, and she runs after the boy.

She runs!

She runs!

She catches the boy!

They stare at each other, which takes up five pages!

Then, suddenly, the girl gives a huge sob, flings herself on the boy, and they start making out in the rain!

OR

The teenage delinquent with a strange hair colour stands up to face his DOOOOOM!

He attains magical mystical superpowers from a fairy/pendant/sword/magical girl!

He becomes so strong everyone is amazed by his powers of awesomeness!

He defeats the big bad with a huge unnecessary yell, with a lot of blood which came from nowhere!

He goes on attaining even more degrees of power until he becomes so strong no one can defeat him ever!

OR

well, you get the idea.

Cross Game? NONE of these things. Well. If you're used to Adachi manga, you'd know the quirky little dialogues he always has with his characters, and the subtle, implied, hints of romance, of sadness, of happiness. Nothing flashy or dramatic, just very real feelings that don't...over-present themselves, I would say.

If you're really really not in the know and you've never read an Adachi manga EVER, (In which case I ask : What have you been DOING all these years?!?!) then cross game is the best manga to start with. I feel that it has the best story and adachi dialogue out of all his baseball/sports mangas. After cross game, I'd say....H2, Touch, Hiatari Ryokou, Katsu! and Rough! are also on my much much MUCH loved list.

Adachi. Is. Genius.

Awesome awesome awesome.

REALLY awesome awesome awesome.

I actually had to post this JUST TO RAVE ABOUT THE AWESOMENESS OF CROSS GAME, how AWESOME IS THAT?!?!

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On another note, I don't like the KWMS anime because it STOPS HALFWAY. Because you know maybe the editors got lazy or something.

Just because the manga is on hiatus doesn't mean the anime has to stop completely!

Geez.

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Positively dying for all the Detective Conan episodes and movies. I wish I didn't have to download stuff all the time! (Although that may be free.)

I'm glad though. This is one series that really feels like it's never going to end EVER EVER.

I LOVE that. hohohohoho. Thank you muchly, Aoyama Gosho.

seriously, with 600+ episodes, 14 movies, 10+ ovas and 66+ volumes of manga (And STILL GOING!) I can just read / watch it one round and then start again because I'd already forget the beginning. :D

Hooray for long series.

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On the other hand, skip beat is actually getting annoying. There's zero scenes with cool acting, Ren is more of a weirdo/idiot/emo/did I mention emo? than usual, and Kyoko is being sillier/stupider/idiot(er?) than usual. Heeeey. What went wrong here!?!? Just because Ren's (not so.) mysterious emo looming dark and dreadful past suddenly shows up, the dialogue, acting and basically all the cool parts of skip beat just run away into the night?!?!

sheesh. True, not that it was a little hinky to begin with. (Come on, the premise and all.) But the acting (at the beginning) was pretty cool - to say the least, especially the improvs that were done for the auditions and so on so forth.

Have to wait this one out and see whether it's reaaally all that good.

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Did I ever mention the COMPLETE LACK OF CROSS GAME FANFICS?!?!

Yeah.

LexaLee

Saturday, June 12, 2010

#19 - OMG ITS THE END.

FULLMETAL

ALCHEMIST

HAS ENDED.

It's AS BAD AS CROSS GAME ENDING.

All I can say is that I found the ending not very satisfying, and there wasn't enough WINRY in it. Neither was there enough ROY and RIZA.

OH COME ON.

They gave us more LING AND RAN FAN (okay so they are cute and I love them too,) than THE MAIN FRICKING CHARACTERS.

Oh man darn it.

It's ended!

I ALMOST CAN'T BELIEVE IT.

(But the Edward and Winry confession is really quite cute - NOT LONG ENOUGH THOUGH.)

Actually right now I'm not coherent cause I'm so heartbroken and my fingers are all numb because I nearly got a heart attack when I saw the words 'Fullmetal Alchemist- END' on onemanga.

GAH.

I really lost the heart to watch the anime now because I know it ends eventually =( It felt as if it would go on forever.

(Really like cross game. Lost the heart to watch the anime and I'm still stuck on episode 45. Hahahaha.)

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Went on a Hayao Miyazaki rampage. Love Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind. Love the male lead. Love the female lead. On par with Spirited Away.

Managed to get through Ponyo. It IS pretty cute, but somewhat boring.

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LOVE KWMS.
LOVE USUI.
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No, I can't continue, I'm still heartbroken. Even Usui can't save me from my pit of despair.

DARN, SHU FEI.

Alexis

Friday, May 14, 2010

#18 - Wahooohooohoo.

I'm a bad, bad person, I watched the beginning of Princess Mononoke because I just had to, before I was able to pull myself away.

Unfortunately for me it is THE DUBBED VERSION ~ OH THE HORROR ~ because I couldn't find the subbed downloadable version ANYWHERE.

Well not too shabby, but incredibly weird because I'm so used to cartoon characters speaking Japanese. Nothing like the terribleness of Naruto dubs or the weirdness of Pokemon dubs, but something always seems wrong when you watch dubbed anime.

Weeeellllll, from what I DID watch, it's pretty interesting. Like most of Hayao Miyazaki's works. Oh but I just couldn't bring myself to finish Ponyo on the Cliff, and I don't know why. It got boring after a little while. Maybe it's just meeee. I'll try to finish it after exams

(AFTER WATCHING PERSONAL TASTE)

yaaaaaay.

Still waiting for Kiki to finish downloading.

Neaaaarly there.

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FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST HAS BEEN AWESOME LATELY. But it's so-not-fun having to wait for chapters for a month. Can't wait to sit down and watch FMA - marathon style. I'm so much further ahead in the manga than I am in the anime and it's spoiling everything for meeeee~

ROY. IS AWESOME AS EVER.

SO IS EDWARD.

AND RIZA.

AND OMG, ALPHONSE, NOOOOO!!!!

Yeeaah.

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Actually lately I've just been watching Hayao's movies, and that's about it. Haven't been reading my manga, haven't been watching KWMS. *wow.*

LexaLee