Anime Selection for Fall 2010 + Manga Snapshots

Lately, I feel like I have no time to do anything I really want to do. Work takes up at least 8 hrs a day, but that's really the norm for most of us anyway. So, I just wonder why I feel rushed, or why I can't finish anything I want to do. My manga updates are also incomplete, with seemingly too many titles to catch up to. Of course, reading manga isn't given the highest priority in most people's lives, but it is for me. Well, not the highest, but I do get around to reading them once every few months, so the backlog is incredible. Yes, it is a vicious cycle because I'll never get around to finishing them if I continue putting them off.

Ah, I am well delighted at the selection of the anime series this coming fall in Japan, but it just spells big trouble for the next month or so because I decided that I'll be following 8 titles.

バクマン。| Bakuman 。

A manga about aspiring manga artists. Not something that I usually gravitate to, but I was persuaded once I knew that this title is illustrated and written by the mind behind Death Note. I'll give it a proper shot.

薄桜鬼 碧血録 | Hakuouki Hekketsuroku

This is an anime adaptation of its PlayStation dating simulation game for girls, and it contains hawt guys (what did you expect?). Anyway, it takes place during the Tokugawa Shogunate era, apparently faithful to history, and the cast consists of non-fictional characters. So, at least it'll be educational ... I guess.

STAR DRIVER　輝きのタクト | STAR DRIVER Kagayaki no Takuto

I saw the character art and mecha ... and felt like gleaning over it. Buh. I know nothing much about the story line, except that several of my all-time favourite seiyuus are in the cast, that it will be directed and written by the peeps who brought us Ouran High School Host Club, and the studio responsible is none other than BONES. So, I will watch this unless it is undeniably and heart-wrenchingly crappy.

Pleeeease don't let it be so.

俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない | Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai

Now, this storyline is pretty interesting. A 17 year old high school kid finds out that his 14 year old sister is secretly into eroge. Good grief! Big seiyuu names involved. I'm watching this simply because I. Am. Very. Curious.

荒川アンダー ザ ブリッジ×ブリッジ | Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge

YESH! *pumps fist into air* I am so glad we didn't have to wait too long for the 2nd season! There is a God! (I mean that with all my heart, of course). Random days are back. I missed you, you crazy bunch of misfits.

咎狗の血 | Togainu no Chi

Adapted from its yaoi-infested PlayStation game, there are lots of blood, gore, killings, and politics set in a post-Third World War apocalyptic environment, with all my favourite male seiyuus in the cast. It's gladiator-like fighting - battle to the death. I mean, yaoi-based story with hawt guys. I am immediately sold intrigued. Ahem. Pictures relating to this series are strictly not meant for the uninitiated.

And I finally realise that Togainu no Chi is the series which this cosplayer is cosplaying for! Aaah. Mystery resolved.

 

それでも町は廻っている | Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

To balance out all the 'darkness' from Togainu no Chi, I need a 'light' title. This one is about a girl working in a maid cafe, with a manager who doesn't know how to run one. Comedy setting. Slice of life genre. I love this genre the most, since it appeals to MY reality.

海月姫 ～くらげひめ～ | Kuragehime

Initially I wasn't interested in this one, since the character designs totally threw me off. But, because it is produced by Brain's Base, I'm having second thoughts. I adored its previous productions like Baccano and Durarara!!, so I'm tempted badly. Very badly. It's adapted from an award-winning shoujo manga, and features several girls living together in a women-only apartment who self-proclaimed themselves as enemies of fashionable women because ... well, to put it simply, they won't be 'having any' with the men, unlike the hawt ladies. Along comes the protagonist who is a beautiful lady, except that she's actually a he, who had to cross-dress to avoid succeeding his father's business. Hmmm. Not exactly the most original (I'm thinking along the lines of W-Juliet), but with a storyline like this and produced by Brain's Base, well, I'm adding this to my list.

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Hmmm. I have to say, in Kuroshitsuji, poor Sebby gets stabbed knowingly and has to suffer excruciating pain, even as a demon. Still, he does his work so elegantly as a butler too. I'm seeing a lot of recurring scenes in recent chapters across different titles, i.e. killings, blood, mangled corpses. All in all, urgh.

Sigh. Sometimes I don't like plots where one needs to choose duty over friendship, even though there were circumstances surrounding this one in Dance in The Vampire Bund. Tragedy over an innocent life used as a pawn by the higher powers at play. Realistically, it can happen, and has happened, and will happen. Maybe I need to start reading happier stuffs.

Milestone

I decided that I was going to do something different to mark my 30th. Mind you, it should be an obvious change, an intentional move to commemorate the occasion, but something not too risky and silly. And well, I'd gone to do exactly that and I think it isn't too bad. Let's see what the responses will be when I go to work tomorrow. -rubs hands in glee-

The Press Club was a great place to have a gastronomical experience. It not only filled our stomachs up, we had an interesting experience in the meantime too. The tastes of each dish were quite exquisite - some I'd never had before. I think that scores quite highly in my rulebook. But then again, I'm no Masterchef judge or food connoisseur, so my comments are really my own.

 

 Fresh bread to start off with - lovely olive oil and sea salt

 

 Mussels and anchovies - cold yummy dish

 

Very interesting dishes in the form of jars

Couldn't tell what were in 'em, but they contained the most interesting combination of texture and flavours

 

Potatoes and fish

 

Crunchy veggies, nice poached egg and chicken pieces

 

I love poached eggs which burst at the seams

 

Grouper with a nice thick layer of skin - yummy beyond belief

 

The Press Club, by Masterchef judge - George Calombaris

 

The busy kitchen counter

 

The very tender beef piece which was marinated for 16 hours

 

The beautiful rose-themed dessert - love the chocolate handwriting!

 

Miniature rose garden dessert - grounded chocolate which passed off as soil even!

 * * * * * *

 

I really need to stop buying books because my reading list has become too long.

I am 30!

2 days into being 30, I honestly don't feel any different. Am I supposed to? OK, so I have to tick a different age group bracket in surveys and forms, but I reckon I still look the same in the mirror (which actually may not be a good thing. Hmm, it's debatable).

I had a lovely time on the day itself, beginning at work and ending at a fine-dining restaurant in the city. My boss baked me a lovely sponge cake at 6am that morning, and my colleagues presented me a timely Borders voucher, so I'm absolutely thrilled and grateful. I had dinner with 2 good mates at Rockpool Bar & Grill Restaurant in the fancy-ritzy Crown Casino Complex, and it was a delight for the senses. Gosh, that beef. How could meat taste so good? How?

The nice folks at the restaurant also presented me an enticing Coffee + Chocolate Cupcake for my special day, and it was definitely a sweetener to the evening. I must have been borned without a sweet tooth. I sometimes eat cakes, brownies, the likes, but only if they are hand-baked and given to me. I humbly accept them with appreciation, but I will need a lot of tea as accompaniment (it helps with the swallowing... gosh, that sounds awfully wrong). The only exception? The ageless Devonshire Cream Tea. Oh, the joys. I remembered my first experience with those heavenly scones in Exeter, Devon and totally patted myself on the back for choosing to do my undergraduate degree there.

Right, where was I?

So yes, Rockpool makes an amazing Coffee + Chocolate Cupcake. It was enough to make me repeat that I was impressed by it. Twice. Thrice. Almost every time I swiped at it with my fork actually. Yum. And it's only $6 on the menu. Or is that expensive for a cupcake? Well, I only probably eat 1-2 cupcakes per year, so I don't know the median prices of these teeny cute crumbly things.

I'm 30. I thanked the Lord on that day for that day, and for allowing me to turn 30. When you have a Near-Death Encounter card in your life bank, you literally thank the Lord for each day. Well, not all the time as I do have obscenely busy mornings when I have slept in and woke up in 'Full Metal Panic!'

But yes, every birthday is a commemoration. The irony is that I am well-known for being morbid. Because I am morbid, it means I have no fear of death. So, if I escaped death, then I simply sigh and wait for its next move.

That is rubbish.

I don't know about others, but I do feel fearful when it comes to death. I did surprise myself that I wasn't that frightened or crippled in the face of it, but I wasn't devoid of panic. Max Lucado wrote in his book, Fearless, that he figured he could and would die bravely, and he hoped his readers would too. I liken it to having a quivering lip as the flames lick around you, but you know where your heart lies and your body doesn't flinch. Metaphorically, of course.

May I continue to find out more about God, and allow Him to expand everything about me through the remaining years of my life (except for my weight, pleeeease).

Irony

I love the internet because it brings me endless entertainment and information. I can buy books after reading reviews about them online.

And then I never get to read said books because I'm still on the internet. My books-to-read list is seriously piling, but then I find time to blog about the fact that I am not reading those spanking new books.

Good grief.

September, already?

I know the old adage - as you grow older, time flies by quicker.

But seriously, this is too fast!!