...what are you watching...

Tried to balance equal amounts of lecture time with fun this weekend.

Honey & Clover live-action jmovie! (fyi: I saw that the dvd straight rip was out, but it was impossibly too large, then it popped up at the jdrama com which led me to a great clubbox hunt, so I wouldn't have to put up with MU...in case you were wondering.) This movie is expectedly a slice-of-life film featuring college art students on the verge of adulthood.



( Short summary and impression )



Himitsu no Hanazono 2! features a day-in-the-life of 4 brothers who create shoujo manga. For some reason I thought the otaku brother was the eldest; my bad, he's not. Anyway, it was a cute episode as they tease their new editor/magazine rep(?) some more. The actors play stereotypes (otaku, serious-type, hot-type, angsty teen), but it's fun to watch. Btw, the actor who plays the eldest brother also did Hanamoto-sensei in the Honey & Clover movie. Not quite an outstanding actor..and I keep associating him with the annoying part he played in Engine, but I'm sure he's not that bad.

Hana Yori Dango S2 3! Can't help but laugh at Rui's white shoes...elves have NoTHinG on him. Domyoji's dream becomes more clear and we see into his mother's problems. Onto the more important things like: Are Domyoji's eyebrow's nicer than they were last season? He has nice, sparkley nail polish, too. For a poor person, Makino has really adorable clothes. And why are Sojiro & Yuki cute even though together, they are extremely dull. Speaking of cute...Akira's family!!!

finished up Suki Dakara Suki a while back and it was possibly the dullest, most inane thing CLAMP ever created. The little girl falls in love with her teacher. There was a nice gay couple where one partner wrote porn and children's books. There may have been one humorous scene, that's about it. The intentional or unintentional sexual innuendos kept this manga from being as sweet and cute as it probably meant to be.



anyway,
Honey and Clover 11! oh nooooooo. It's almost the end. The battle for Hagu between Takemoto, Hanamoto-sensei & Morita was quite touching and I'm glad it was resolved through some humor. The truths brought out by the entertaining fight were sad, but the characters seem grounded enough to not become alienated from each other...well, the main characters...Kaoru..poor guy. The issues of talent, money, maturity, and all that other real life stuff probably keeps this series directed toward the college+ audience. There didn't seem to be any formulaic, over-used shoujo cliches...*whew*. As for Hagu's choice, the flashback was very endearing and Hanamoto-sensei's forced declaration at the end brought about the only real squeaky part to this story, BUT only because Hagu looks about 12 years old. +++ I look forward to Umino Chika's manga spinoff.

I took a little roadtrip during the tropical storm which I'd have considered a drizzle...unless you had lived near a creek/river/anybodyofwater. Wasn't bad, but I did witness a car spinning out of control in the opposite lane. It hit the guardrail with a *crash*. That's what happens when you vroom down a hill in the rain in your little red sportscar. It didn't explode and there was another car stopped, so I went on my way.

Closing in on my destination, I also witness a squirrel carrying a dead, bloody rat. Definitely not a cat, it was a squirrel; a weird city squirrel.

Anyway, relaxed and gobbled up some asian fast food. yum!

Here's what I didn't post during the time.

Mushishi 25! Eyeballs missing, gouged-out and/or oddly colored continue to intrigue the masses...well, the otaku-like masses...or maybe the sci-fi-loving masses. In this episode Ginko meets a formerly blind woman whose eyes were infected by mushi. She asks Ginko for help and tells him her story. It's interesting what she had been able to see with those eyes; first, clearly; then a great distance; then the future & past; and then everything. She wasn't able to see Ginko's past and even though the anime already addressed his past, he himself doesn't remember. Thus, her eyes see what is known and unknown...except for what is not remembered?....something like that.



Ouran Koukou Host Club 21! is the Halloween episode which is pretty different from the manga. Kaoru's little introspective take on the club gives the whole anime series that binding theme. The manga up through volume 7-ish doesn't address anything serious yet...(although I think I browsed 8 and the recent chapters and saw some serious relationship woes.) The test of fear story was very cute and funny. Although the mangaka, Bisco Hatori, writes wonderfully, her art doesn't quite make the comedy come alive, so this'd be one of those series in which the anime is more successful in telling the story. (well, Viz's inability to use spellcheck and their seme/uke cut also prevents me from enjoying the manga)

Honey and Clover 9! *weep* so close to the end. As Hagu recovers, unseen aspects of the other characters are revealed. The resolution between Kaoru and Morita was very sad. Their story was interesting and unexpected. Hachikuro wasn't a series that I actively search for, so I never went ahead and looked in the manga to see what happened(haha, too much intimidating text in the manga). Bittersweet brotherly love is a wonderful thing. Nomiya's thing for Yamada seems to be fading...at least I hope. Hanamoto-sensei and Takemoto continue to be my favorite characters and this is probably because they are the most easy to understand and relate to. Their concerns and actions are the most down-to-earth. *sniffles*

in movie news--
"The Host" and "The King and the Clown" both applied to compete at the Academy Awards in the foreign-language film category. Yay! go Korea! Yay, go domestic release! No! no dubs please.

Ouran Koukou Host Club 17! is a humorous episode revolving around Kyouya. Tamaki and gang drag a sleeping Kyouya to a commoner's mall. They run off to have fun leaving Kyouya behind without a wallet or cell. I do love that WcDonalds appears all shows. The facial expressions of Kyouya and Haruhi are great in this episode. Haruhi's analysis of Kyouya was interesting. It made me want to see the background stories of how Tamaki met everyone in the club. Fun episode..ya!

Honey and Clover II 5! brings Yamada's weepiness to a sorta end and starts Morita and Kaoru's story. Takemoto's admiration of Mayama was very cute. Another good episode from this series. I've never smelled olive groves before. The health spa looked like odd fun. ++

Welcome to NHK! 3! I skipped episode 2...whoops. It's odd that an anime show about the patheticness of otakus...and/or hikikomori is so well-made...that it'll just attract the thing that it criticizes. Anyway, besides the Roundtable link, this show is also similar to Chobits in terms of character design and visual production...set and other stuff. There's also the "even seemingly pathetic losers deserve love" theme running through the anime. Not sure what this is really about (encouraging viewers to live life or saying it's ok to be like that), but the show is again, well-contructed. Nevertheless, end of the road for me; the comedic moments aren't too successful. The main character obsessing over naked girls gets old. The female character who wants to make 'project' out of him isn't too interesting. Sooooo, no fun...('cept for....haha, use qoogle and mindows xx for porn-search...hhahahaa).

Innocent Venus 1! I did the fastforward version of viewing this new show. Jin and Jo and random comedic kid try to protect Sana from the military. Much of the population of Earth was destroyed by hurricanes. A new system of living was devised where the rich get richer and the poor live in slums. huh. The anime is trying to be serious, action-packed and cute via Sana...code name, Venus. It's a bit dull 'though it might pick up since it is slated for only 12 episodes.

Nana 16! eyeballs and noses are randomly placed on the characters' heads. Ren's relationship to Nana is revealed to Hachi. *snooze*

Ouran Koukou Host Club 14! featured the host club trying to help out the school newspaper. There's no way that you could dislike Suou Tamaki in this episode. From the doggy eyes to the excitement over 'cake', he was so cute. Haruhi's delayed reactions at the end of each episode always makes me smile. +++



Honey and Clover II 2! For some reason I'd thought Yamada got over Mayama a.g.e.s. ago. Apparently, I was w.r.o.n.g. She is a likable character when she is with Hagu and Morita....I guess she doesn't interact with anyone else much. I don't see why Nomiya would bother with her. It is a nice touch that Nomiya is exactly like a cleaned-up version of Mayama. The hiccups were cute in this episode. Can't wait to see the rest. Hope they fit in as much as they can. ++

The director, Makoto Shinkai, has a new project, Byousoku 5 Centimeter. There a nice trailer to d/l at the site. He had previously worked on Hoshi no Koe and Kumo no Mukou... which were both interestingly plot-holey stories about loooooong distance love. His sky scenes are the best I've ever seen..love the clouds and color.

Yuki (with the song, Fugai nai ya), Suneohair (with the song, Split), and Suga Shikao & the duo Depapepe will be providing the opening, ending, background music, respectively, for the new season of Honey and Clover starting Thursday, June 29, 2006. from ans.com

Here're some samples from Depapepe...sounds like awesome acoustic guitar fun.

Still looking for news about Arashi's single for the live-action movie.