Had a few more 2007 Flashback posts to toss up... But no, today being Valentines/Cynic Singles' Appreciation Day and all, I thought this post would be more in order... (In other words I'm too brain-drained to do any more serious posts for now, so I'll just settle with a fluffy rant with the excuse that I just realized what day it was today... being a hikikomori makes it all too easy to lose track of time after all)Truth be told, I have nothing much of my own to say about this particular date of crass commercialism and hypocritic idealism... Err, scratch that, said too much already. *ahem* So instead I'll just rant on about how miffed I am that we don't practise celebrating V-day the way the Japanese do - I WANT MY GIRI (OBLIGATORY) CHOCOLATES!!!For the uninitiated, the Japanese, being the Japanese after all, have their own version of how this day is to be celebrated, and if sources are to be trusted, it might as well be called Chocolate Day (which suits me just fine =P). Basically women spend a ton of money on chocolates to give out to their male friends/colleagues/loved ones (Crass commercialism 4tw!). The last group obviously gets the fancier stuff (Honmei-chocolates) while the rest simply get the Giri-chocos - which basically says you're special to me and all, but I can't afford to spend as much time and effort on you ;DIn anime, girls are traditionally depicted in spending their own efforts and 'making' these chocolates themselves (which really boils down to melting bought chocolate into shaped moulds or the occasional truffle... mmmm.... Truffles...). Many a time, a character with absolutely no cooking prowess will have to seek the help of a domestic goddess from her circle of friends to educate her in this delicate art, and this is usually prompted by said girl realizing feelings for a usually dense boy. Said boy will be subjected to girl's furious blushing as she finally musters up the courage to hand the chocolates to the target of her affections (usually with much dawdling around for the whole day) only she will try too damned hard to appear nonchalant about it and pass them off as the mere obligation variety, while repeating unnecessarily loudly "D-d-don't misunderstand this. It's only giri-choco..." Reference: any harem anime with a Valentine's Day scenario and at least one tsundere.A 'typical' Valentines Day scenario gone wrong.Of course, all this supposed effort is not for naught... A month later on March 14th, the Japanese (and as far as I know only the Japanese) celebrate the so-called White Day, when the chocolate receiving men of Valentines become the chocolate givers to return the favour to the ladies... Fair enough, I suppose, seeing that love (for chocolates) is something that should be shared =P At any rate, the person who thought this whole idea up must be some cunningly money-minded confectioner(Woo-hoo commercialism!).The typical White Day scenario in anime, btw, is when useless male lead conveniently forgets or has some dumb excuse for remembering White Day and as such is subjected to the torment of wrathful girl.Anyways, this year's V-Day will probably be of no particular importance to me, shall probably be having dinner with loved ones (i.e. family) out at some hawker centre (lol) to avoid the icky jostle of couples in 'posher' establishments. My anime viewing will go on as usual, I certainly won't be expecting myself to rewatch stuff like Lovely Complex or Tokyo Marble Chocolate (or the School Days Valentines OVA, LOL. Speaking of which...). Meanwhile I shall be miffing about the current absence of chocolate coming my way... Stuff is is probably wayyyy to overpriced this time of year anyways (bloody commercialism), so I'll just have to be satisfied with whatever little's still left in the fridge T.THere's wishing everyone a 'Happy' V-Day (hey, fellow single-tons, think of all the money you're saving!), whether you're spending it with loved ones (2-D or 3-D), the internet, or just treating it as any other day ;P Now if you excuse me, I have a fridge to raid...
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Nodame (Noda Megumi) played by Ueno Juri (Orange Days, Jodan ja nai!) and Chiaki Shinichi played by Tamaki Hiroshi (Atsu-hime, Great Teacher Onizuka) are back for the second night of the two part special. Along with Frank played by Wentz Eiji (Gegege no Kitaro, Lovely Complex) and Tanya played by Becky (Rondo, Stand Up!!), tonight they're joined by Takenaka Naoto (Romeo and Juliet, First Kiss) as Franz Stresemann. No plot summary because I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't watched the first part yet. Screen shots of the Special first night are here , the drama series, the anime , the Nodame Cantabile Character Book and the Special second night below.Thanks to siantut who released the softsubs for the concluding part of the two night special download them here, the RAW video bit torrent files can be downloaded here.
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Nodame (Noda Megumi) played by Ueno Juri (Orange Days, Jodan ja nai!) and Chiaki Shinichi played by Tamaki Hiroshi (Atsu-hime, Great Teacher Onizuka) are graduating from college with their friend Mine Ryutaro played by Eita (Orange Days, Lunch no Joou), then Nodame and Chiaki are off to Europe with a stop in Prague for a concert by Chiaki’s former instructor Sebastino Vieira. Then they head for Paris where it becomes apparent that Nodame can’t speak French. But at their apartment building Nodame learns to speak French when their neighbor and French otaku Frank played by Wentz Eiji (Gegege no Kitaro, Lovely Complex) plays a French dubbed anime favorite of Nodame. Tanya a Russian music student played by Becky (Rondo, Stand Up!!) is another of their neighbors and she has her eye on Chiaki.All the elements that made the award winning drama series are reunited and a very enjoyable two part sequel has begun. The characters are outstanding I particularly enjoyed Frank, and the train station scene loaded with French cosplayers on the way to see Nodame’s favorite mangaka. If you haven’t seen the drama I highly recommend that you grab it and watch it now it is one of my all time favorite dramas, manga and anime. This special could still be enjoyed even if you haven’t seen the series as it stands very well on its own, but the series is so great don’t deprive yourself.Download the RAW video bit torrent file here; the soft subs for part one of the special can be downloaded here. SARS-Fansubs will be releaseing a hardsub edition if you prefer them, I'll post links for that and for the soft subs for part of the special as they are released.
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Without previously reading any reviews for it, I didn’t quite know what to expect from the live action version of LoveCom. I’ve come to really love the anime and the story.I’m disappointed to say the live action wasn’t as good as I expected. I’d give it a 6.5/10 rating. The comedy just wasn’t as good. [...]
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Decidedly, the word is that 2007 is not as exciting as 2006. We did not have Haruhi, we did not have Simoun, we did not have Black Lagoon. In fact, I'm going to talk about shows I didn't see in 2007 (and some that I did, but not like Haruhi, Simoun and Black Lagoon).
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I haven't been much of a jdrama fan, until last year, though I was mostly into manga-based jdramas, especially those I'm already familiar with. There's Hana Yori Dango (it's 2005, but I just watched it last year), and Nodame Cantabile, for example. If we're going to include movies then add Lovely Complex and Honey and Clover to my "watched jdramas list". There's nothing special with mangas being turned into jdramas, as it's been done so in the past, though the number of these adaptations are considerably less compared to manga turned animes. Other notable adaptations in 2006 include Kurosagi, Iryu, Teppan Shoujo Akane, and Sapuri. Upon further checking, I discovered that there are a total of 13 manga-based jdramas this year, though most of the titles it was based on is something I have yet to come across with. Things changed in 2007, particularly during Spring and onwards, where the influx of manga-based jdramas became evident. There's a total of 30 of these adaptations in this... [ This is only an excerpt for the post! Go the the website for the full content + pictures + links. ]
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5. Lovely Complex Back when I was in kindergarten and the class would disperse for play time, the girls would always rope me in to playing house. No gluing macaroni to construction paper for me. I got some weird looks from the rest of the boys in the class, but oh well. You should [...]
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I was gazing through the list for an anime to review. As I clicked onto the Spring 2007 season anime, I realized that there was something that was begging to be revealed. I immediately screamed to Extrange (who was chatting with me online) that it is a wonder that none of the reviewers on the [...]
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For the first day of my twelve-part series of anime-related things that affected me in 2007, I’m writing about something that I saw as a part of a regular anime club screening involving Lovely Complex.
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Lovely Complex With the seas of bishoujos I sail lately I really appreciate having a catalyst. For this season Lovely Complex is the counter-programming, and I should say that this is really a blast! Despite rollercoaster animation quality, this shoujo series is a total LOL-fest! Extreme comedic value with a lighthearted touch on romance... and height [...]
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