Gakuen Alice - Chapter 130

Nothing special. I'm guessing that Persona will end up betraying the elementary school principal and get killed in the process. He doesn't seem like the kind of character that would be reformed and just join the group.

Gakuen Alice - Update

I'm up to date with Gakugen Alice. It's formulaic in some ways, but there are quite a few surprises. Since I've read 129 chapters, I'm sure you can guess that I like it. The most recent chapter was out on 4/20 in Japan. Hopefully it'll get scanned soon. I'd like to read some Death Note tonight, but I have to work tomorrow. Meh.

Gakuen Alice

Alice Academy is a government-run school for super geniuses. Mikan's best friend Hotaru suddenly leaves for Tokyo from their rural village to attend the Alice Academy. After several months with only a post card, Mikan steals her grandfather's secret savings and heads off to Tokyo to see Hotaru.  Long story short, she ends up enrolling in the academy and finds out that it's a school for kids with unique abilities, which they call Alices. She immediately makes Natsume, the most powerful boy in school, her enemy. As time goes on, she discovers that there's much more going on at Alice Academy than she ever expected.

I like the story so far. The characters and their Alices are interesting. Mikan is a bit of a crybaby, but also a hard worker. As of chapter 15, I think this one's going to be good. It's on chapter 129 and still being produced. Expect more updates.

Special A - Manga Conclusion

Overall, it was alright. I do agree with many people that 99 chapters was a bit too much for the storyline that was presented. Also, the whole resolution of Kei's moving to London felt very anticlimactic and weird. That arc was very drawn out and then it ended in about 2 pages quite randomly. It was like the mangaka couldn't figure out a good way to end it. Disappointing. It was also a bit irritating that Hikari's character doesn't evolve much. The same could be said for most of the characters. Dunno if I'm going to watch the anime.

What's next? I'm thinking I might read Death Note since it seems to be popular amongst my students.

Special A - Manga

Basically the idea here is that the girl, Hikari Hanazono, has always been second place to Kei Takishima in everything they do. She has dedicated her life to beating Kei in anything she can. She works like crazy has yet to accomplish this feat. What she doesn't know is that Kei has been in love with her since they were children. Hikari is rather dense. She is a very good person and wants everyone, friend or foe, to be able to smile and have fun.

Shojo cliches abound. I like the two main characters and their odd relationship. The minor characters are pretty flat, though. I would say that there is only one that really seems to have a good backstory and character development. The story goes well for a chapter or two, then it drags for a while. I'm sure it could have been shortened without losing much. I am only on chapter 53 of 99, however, so I will reserve final judgement until the end of 99.

There is an anime adaptation which is 24 episodes. I'll probably end up watching it.

Superior Cross

So I finished the rest of Superior (Ch. 27) and have read the first 4 chapters of Superior Cross. Basically the author did a summary of the story so far for the new readers in the new magazine it's being published in. A majority of Superior was stuffed into those 2 chapters, so it was sort of refreshing. Chapter 3 gave some backstory for Angelica and a bit of closure on an area of her life. The plot seemed rather forced, though. Chapter 4 is a "Part 1" kind of chapter. I can already see what Part 2 will be like. I do prefer how Sheila is being portrayed so far. I'm cautiously optimistic ...

BTW - The cover makes you think that this is a "let's draw some hot chicks" manga. Not so much. It is, however, designed to pull in the target audience: men, of course.

Look what I got in the mail!!!!

I feel like a little kid at Christmas! \(^_^)/  My Skip Beat! volumes 1 - 20 arrived today! I can't help but use exclamation points!! They're new! And shrink wrapped! And begging to be read! YAY!!1!!!one!!

Superior

Simple premise: Hero sets out to kill demon queen. Demon Queen finds hero and decides to tag along with him in disguise before she kills him. Hero is a pacifist and vows to kill no one except for Demon Queen. Demon Queen falls in love with Hero; Hero falls in love with Demon Queen. Hilarity ensues.

This manga was suggested to me because there is a strong female lead. It seemed interesting at the beginning, but it's not living up to expectations. Sheila, the demon queen, has been appearing less and less. Lately, the hero, Exa, has been getting most of the attention with his angst about whether or not he can follow his ideal of not killing anyone. The pacifist thing reminds me of Trigun, except it's getting really annoying. There are several "what the heck??" and deus ex machina moments. It seems like the mangaka loses track of the plot sometimes.

I like the general idea that is presented, but I'm very much disappointed at the follow-through. While reading I can't help but think of how it could be fixed. The story so far could have been presented in a tenth of the space. But ... I'll probably keep reading it, hoping it will get better and because I've invested so much time in it already. I'm on chapter 25. The name of the manga changes to Superior Cross after chapter 27(?) because it switched magazines. Dunno why they have to do that.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Anime Completed(?)

Well, only 14 episodes, but it was really good! It had the weird existential quandary thing that anime loves to do, but it ended up really well. Kyon is definitely an awesome character, although somewhat dense. Haruhi starts out as pretty annoying, but you end up really liking her in the end.  The characters have more depth that what you would expect from the first episode or two.

Apparently there are 14 more episodes that were added to the re-runs of the originals. It's weird. Wikipedia has more on that.  I'm hoping to find those episodes. Maybe crunchyroll will add them as well at some point. I dislike having to scour the web for anime.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimiya (Anime)

Just watched the first episode on crunchyroll. My favorite part so far? Kyon. It doesn't hurt that he's voiced by Sakata Gintoki's seiyuu, Tomokazu Sugita. Looks like it'll be interesting.

Update: After episode 3, I have concluded that this anime is weird. Interestingly enough, I still like it. As a sidenote, I am watching the episodes in chronological order according to the storyline.  Apparently when it aired originally, it was out of order, which would probably confuse the crap out of me. Ah well.
EDIT: I was wrong. I ended up watching it out of order, which wasn't as confusing as I thought it would be.

Introduction

I ♥ anime and manga, but there really isn't anyone in my family or current circle of friends who share my enthusiasm. Thus I am creating this random blog. It doesn't really matter to me if anyone actually reads this; I just would like a place to "talk" about what I've read / seen. That's it.