* Apurikotto Waffles *

I was actually gonna post this up on Mangahelpers, but then I realised it was probably too dodgy to put there, so here we go. :P For anyone interested, I was bored and the art was cute, so I decided to do a quick Chinese->English translation. I’m not sure about a few parts, so it would probably be a good idea to wait for a proper actual translation/scanlation.

To read it online, there’re Chinese raws on dm5. Chapter 0 to 3 can be obtained from Biri Biri’s blog — be warned that outside of the page I’m linking to, they do scanlate hentai.

In comparison to the anime, which fleshes out some of the sections but otherwise follows the manga pretty closely, episode 1 detailed chapters 0 to 2, while episode 2 included chapters 3 to 4.

For the script, continue reading. Continue Reading »

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Hm, been almost three weeks since I’d posted. How was your Christmas? :)

This is pretty much a short(er) interim post while I get my Otenba Koimusume (Cirno’s Theme) post ready. @animemiz on Twitter linked me to a delightful video on George and AJ, the two poor Shady Oaks (Retirement Home) employees, who find themselves in a bit of a pickle when Carl’s UP house turns into a trend with elderly retirees. From the original Pixar page, I found a remix of Up by Pogo, who hails from down under (though down in Perth, WA). Pogo’s also made a variety of other videos with sounds from other movies, one of which seems to have recently been taken down. Some say Disney wasn’t happy Alice was up since it was using their copyright material, which is something I can understand. I do prefer the Up remix a lot more to Alice, though, which is kinda repetitive.

Now, compare Pixar’s if-I-can’t-beat-em-I-sure-can-use-them-to-draw-traffic-to-my-channel reaction to Disney’s hypothetical reaction (- especially since Pixar IS part of Disney now, kinda <.>). Sometimes I feel that copyright holders don’t know what to do about fanwork. Some go for the jugular and demand complete deletion, but there’ll always be people who slip through the cracks and reupload, not to mention this just makes the company look nazi. On the other hand, what is the purpose of their work in the first place? Money? Should fanwork artists pay royalties, then? But what if they’re distributing it for free, or charging a small fee for production costs? Is a credit line sufficient? After all, and this brings us to the next point, it’s free advertisement. People will often check out the original work when told what they’re watching/listening to is a derivative of something. What do you think fanwork is? Free advertisement from diligent fans, or just a horrible bastardisation of the original?

While on Facebook, and completely unrelated to the rest of the post, I also found an advert link to Crowded Reality, apparently a ‘community-run’ reality show…that requires you to pay $39 to give your opinion. Hey, people pay me to give my opinion! XD Honestly though, I found it kinda odd, not to mention I’ve never heard of the company -> scam alert meter immediately goes up. Would you pay $39 to be one of 50000 people polling on the inner bits of a reality tv show? Part of the attraction of reality tv, to me, has always been looking at the challenges – new ones the producers come up with, and how the contestants react to it. Simply put, I’m a lazy viewer. Also keep in mind that if every one of the 50k pays up, that’s a cool 2 million…

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P.S. Searching up ‘pregnant’ in TouhouDanbooru made me think I’d get some Clannad pictures. (I ended up getting one Clannad picture.) I got some pretty scary pictures along with that, though. After 23 pages, only less than five were decent..two are below. -wry- Though..why would Yin be pregnant?! XD

(Note: info before the trailer has no spoilers, but I do go into some movie quotes/details after the video/Apture info box and ‘read more’ jump)

I like romcoms. (Romantic comedies.) In fact, I’m a sucker for romcoms and love stories. Away We Go, though, remains hard to categorise even after I saw it in the cinema last Wednesday, courtesy Contagious Network. It’s a quirky-emotional-yet-realistic comedy focusing on love and the future for a pair of ultimately-likable characters. Not ‘com’ enough for romcom, nor queen enough for drama.

In the end was hard for me to get a date to see a movie that I couldn’t slot carefully into its little box — ‘action’, ‘horror’, ‘horrible’, ‘comedy’. In the end, both the dates I had in mind couldn’t make it. But unlike 500 Days of Summer, where I felt lonely in the cinema because at bits it made things seem uncomfortably-personal, all Away We Go made me feel was wistful that my significant other wasn’t watching it with me.

Continue Reading »

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I woke up early this morning (which, for me, is 10.30am >.>) to the DHL man ringing a parcel up. Was wondering what on earth it was cos usually the postmen are lazy bastards and don’t bother to ring the unit.

Turns out it was my manga (and dad’s work stuff)! Surprising cos mom just emailed me yesterday saying it was on the way, but turns out someone at dad’s office sent the box by EXPRESS instead of surface mail. Woot!

Don’t be fooled by the size of the box; apparently, it’s only 0.5kg. It sure felt like heavier than that to me, but that’s what the label says..

So – what I got: HEAPS of Wild Life (in Chinese): 10 to 27, to be exact, Speed Grapher 2 & 3, and Otomen 4 & 5 (in English). Total cost? 127SGD! Bargain~~ =) :D Many thanks to mom. I thought she was going overboard buying so much, but hey, it IS cheap, haha.

So aside from the Wiki entries for Wild Life and Otomen (I’d rather have linked to MangaUpdates, but it wasn’t really possible with Apture. Ah well. Look for them on MU if you’re interested. :P), I was also surfing around youtube, and came across a video some friends’d made for another friend (Congrats, Christie, by the way! =)). And in it..there was a song I later realised was a parody of Coldplay’s Viva la Vida. And from there, I found singindork888’s amazing covers/originals. Have a listen to a few of my favourites below. =) Jon Schmidt’s piano/cello version of a Love Story/Viva la Vida mashup is quite awesome too~

For the original Coldplay song, it’s on the official youtube channel.

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Some people might know about the upcoming Inubaka live action — the trailer’s out! Have a look at it below. (Or have a look at the Official Site, which probably has better quality.)

I have an issue with Suzanne looking rather unnatural as an actor (which is completely contrary to how Suguri should be)…and the guy looks a bit strange too. Nonetheless, the dogs are adorable. I do wonder whether we’ll ever get to see this movie down under?

Posting has slowed down, for anyone who’s noticed. XD Will get back on in about a month’s time. Also, somehow this blog still isn’t on Google properly..:S Why?? Is it the dodgy host? Le sigh.

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Hmmm, nothing really much that interests me, though we do see some good-value Seven Seas omnibuses of two of their original properties (Hollow Fields and Destiny’s Hand) this week. Though I’m not really sure when they were published. ._. Kodansha kicks off their English manga publishing business with two classics: Akira, and Ghost in the Shell. Their books are the priciest ones this week, though, which is probably unsurprising considering both of them are around the 350-page mark.

Date	Title	Price (USD)	Publisher
21/10	Ciao Ciao Bambino (Preorder), Volume Oneshot	9.71	DMP
21/10	Love Skit (Preorder), Volume Oneshot	11.96	DMP
21/10	Millennium Prime Minister (Preorder), Volume 2	9.71	DMP
13/10	Ballad of a Shinigami, Volume 2	9.99	CMX
13/10	Oh! My Brother!, Volume 1	9.02	CMX
14/10	Gantz, Volume 7	OOS	Dark Horse
13/10	Tsubasa Character Guide, Volume 2	16.19	Del Rey
13/10	Akira, Volume 1	21.15	Kodansha
13/10	Ghost in the Shell, Volume 1	22.7	Kodansha
28/10	100% Perfect Girl, Volume 9	OOS	Netcomics
13/10	The Loudest Whisper: Uwasa No Futari , Volume 2	11.69	Blu (Tokyopop)
13/10	Samurai Harem – Asu No Yoichi, Volume 2	11.69	Tokyopop
13/10	Battle Angel Alita: Last Order, Volume 12 – Angel Redux	9.05	Viz
13/10	Black Lagoon, Volume 8	11.69	Viz
13/10	Boys Over Flowers: Jewelry Box, Volume Oneshot	9.05	Viz
13/10	Gimmick!, Volume 9	9.05	Viz
13/10	Inuyasha, Volume 41	9.05	Viz
13/10	O-Parts Hunter, Volume 18	9.05	Viz
13/10	Red River, Volume 27	9.05	Viz
7/10	Shaman Warrior, Volume 8	11.66	Dark Horse
?/10	Destiny’s Hand, Volume Omnibus (v1-3)	13.49	Seven Seas
?/10	Hollow Fields, Volume Omnibus (v1-3)	13.49	Seven Seas
?/10	Venus Versus Virus, Volume 7	9.89	Seven Seas
21/10	Fairy Idol Kanon, Volume 2	7.74	Udon

* Many thanks to references from Comic Village and manga about.com
* Prices are correct at time of writing. Recently-released books are often discounted at Bookdep, and pre-order books are generally even cheaper than new-release ones. If you’re buying something this time, why not check if a newer vol is already available for preorder, as is sometimes the case? :)

Tags: tradethursday

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Summary: Ugh, this is gonna be a short one. (I’d originally written just the line after this, but I expanded the summary afterwards. -wry-) Two people decide to commit suicide together because they’ve realised how meaningless their lives were. Our male protagonist is a part-time bum and part-time conman, acting as an actor in an revolutionary cell that exists just to extort money from the poor and dissatisfied people who join. He meets up with our female character, who works as a hostess and whose husband is either in jail or in the army. (Sorry, it’s 1.30am and I wasn’t clear on that point. XD) They have sex, and decide to go end their lives together. At the cliff precipice, she asks him to push her off, and he does, but it all gets a bit hazy here…at this point, I don’t mind if he gets disqualified from life like the title of this chapter of the series says (Ningen Shikkaku). -wry-

Thoughts: Look, I know this is supposed to be classic literature. I’m sure the original (story?) was better, and maybe I’m rating this too harshly because I don’t like suicide plots..but just..bleh. This ep was the first one of the season that made me go, ‘Wtf?!’, and not in a good way. The guy narrating was just annoying. I mean, I’m sure he had his reasons (seems like some childhood trauma)…but just…maa, I don’t get it. Have a look at some of the screenshots if you want, but they’re pretty dreadful quality.

Tags: Anime, aoi bungaku, autumn09, first-impressions

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It’s 2am and I should be going to sleep, so just a short post. (Aren’t mine always short anyway? ^_^”) Railgun definitely has ecchi amusing moments, especially with Kuroko playing the fangirl to the hilt. There were a few light-hearted bits that made me laugh out loud, like the super-fast undie-stealing akshun, and using Uiharu’s flowers on her head to play loves me, loves me not. XD I’m not sure about how it’ll be going, though, and whether it’ll be as serious as Index. Nonetheless, still worth catching for the lols. =)

I still like the OP, but the ED is a bit unremarkable. Watch both below, as well as ep 2. (starts at second video on small bar..)

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Summary: Sasameki Koto starts off mildly-enough; school scenes, complete with uniforms and bloomers during PE. Except! There’re two girls kissing in a classroom..and they’re spotted by another two we’ll presume to be our protagonists~ One of them (Sumi) looks a lot like Yomiko Readman. ._.

Unlike some yuri anime/manga (-coughs-), this one takes place in a co-ed school. And for those who always lamented they weren’t in a girls’ school, I assure you that (most of the time) it’s not like anime. :P During lunch, Kazama raises the question of why girls can’t go out with girls. Turns out she’s been falling for and getting rejected by several girls…yet she doesn’t see that Sumi, beside her, obviously likes her. Poor Sumi is even given a direct hit into the friend zone!

Thoughts:The pace of this ep was kinda slow, and I didn’t really like the animation all that much either. The OP is a very mild song that was altogether pretty remarkable..and the ED is a bit more exciting, but reminds me of Christmas, for some reason. XD If not for the promised yuri, I might have been frustrated enough (poor Sumi!) to stop right here and then..Ah well. Watch for yourself below, it seems subs are already up on youtube. (It’s not the video in the main window, that’s the OP. Second’s the ED, third is part 1 of ep 1..)

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On the NYTimes chart: Black Bird 1, Naruto 43, and Fruits Basket 23 have been displaced by Naruto 46 (still Naruto >.>), Shugo Chara! 7, and Negima!? Neo 3. Naruto 46 only been released four days ago, and makes a good strong showing. With the exception of Naruto 45, there’s some upper-place reshuffling, notably of Fullmetal Alchemist 20 and Chibi Vampire 14, which switched first and fourth places.

…Seriously, you guys can tell all this from the table, so have a look. XD That said, I don’t know whether I can trust the Kinokuniya ranking…there’s too much movement. :S

NY (Last Wk)	Aus (Last Wk)	Title	Bookdep (USD)	RRP (USD)	Kinokuniya (AUD)	Publisher
8 (3)	1 (1)	Yotsubato! 6 (Preorder)	8.24	10.99	19.26	Yen Press
-	2 (-)	Neon Genesis Evangelion: Shinji Ikari Raising Project	8.96	9.95	15.05	Dark Horse
	3 (-)	Death Note 2: Confluence	7.19	7.99	25.48	Viz
	4 (-)	Death Note 3: Hard Run	7.19	7.99	11.45	Viz
	5 (-)	Bride of the Water God 4	9.03	9.94	15.05	Dark Horse
	6 (-)	Death Note 1: Boredome	6.94	7.99	25.48	Viz
	7 (-)	Buffy the Vampire Slayer 5: Predators and Prey	14.36	15.99	24.15	Dark Horse
	8 (-)	Steal Moon 2	11.66	12.89	22.71	DMP
	9 (-)	A Strange and Mystifying Story 2	11.66	12.89	22.71	DMP
	10 (-)	School Rumble 13	9.89	10.99	19.26	Del Rey
1 (4)	-	Chibi Vampire 14	9.89	10.99	17.51	Tokyopop
5 (5)	- (7)	Naruto 45	7.16	7.95	11.95	Viz
10 (6)	-	Vampire Knight 7	10	8.99	15.18	Viz
2 (9)	-	Vampire Kisses 3	8.99	9.99	-	Tokyopop
3 (-)	-	Naruto 46	8.99	9.99	-	Viz
7 (-)		Shugo Chara! 7	9.89	10.99	19.26	Del Rey
9 (-)	-	Negima!? Neo 3	9.89	10.99	19.26	Del Rey
4 (1)	-	Fullmetal Alchemist 20	8.99	9.99	-	Viz
6 (2)	- (2)	Bleach 28	7.18	7.95	12.66	Viz

* NY ranking from NY Times; Aus ranking from Kinokuniya Australia.
* Prices are correct at time of writing; New-release books are often discounted. That said, pre-order books are sometimes even cheaper than new-release ones! If you’re buying something this time, why not check if a newer vol is already available for preorder, as is sometimes the case? :)

Tags: Manga, news, tradethursday

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