shippuuden whining + pimpage

[askerian]

So the Shippuuden episodes are FINALLY reaching the part where the action MIGHT begin -- who wants to bet they'll be so fillerized that the resulf of Sakura's punch will be the cliffhanger of the episode? =__=;;;

And to make things worse, there's no episode next week, the next one airs on the 21th. ;_;

Bah. u.u

I've been starting two new series in the meantime; the anime Seirei no Moribito and the manga Katekyo Hitman Reborn.



Seirei no Moribito is based in an alternate medieval China/Japan, with an emperor and stuff. The main character is Balsa (yeah, like the wood. XD) She's a thirty-year-old spearwoman and she kicks unholy amounts of ass. She's honorable, calm, collected, mature, and slightly *cough* abrasive.

Also her childhood friend/the guy who's in love with her complains that he feels like she's the husband and he's the wife, because he's a peaceful medicine-making guy and she's a warrior who would kill or die to protect her people. And you know, he's totally right. She orders him around so naturally, it's beautiful. XD

The art is amazing. High-quality prettiness. It's got quite a few kickass fight scenes with some prettypretty choreography *__* and it also has cuteness, emotional moments, and ohhh, the court intrigues. *__* I love all of the characters so far.

Basically, the story starts when Balsa saves the life of a young prince, and his mother, the emperor's second wife, decides to have Balsa take him in because the child was said to be possessed by a demon and his own father is trying to have him killed for the good of the country. (the father isn't depicted as evil either -- he's said to have cried when he gave the order, and he mourns his son, but demon-possessed princes + prophecies/legends = bad news. ;_;)

Also Balsa's voice actress makes me purr. Her voice is deep and mature, yet very feminine -- a little like Tsunade's, but calmer.

In short, if you like mature, plotful series and feudal Asia stuff, download it. I get it with bittorrent from here -- just search for part of the title, it should pull it up, there are eight eps so far -- but the community moribito has the first five eps up for direct download.

edit: whee, sarolynne did a pimping post too. Hers has pictures! ^o^



As for Katekyo Hitman Reborn, it's a shounen manga.

It's also pure, distilled crack. When I started reading it, I was all "okay no I hate that plot-devicy kid, it's ridiculous"... and then the secondary characters snatched me up and wouldn't let me go, and then the main character grew on me, and, well. It's hilarious often and very shounen-y the rest of the time. Lots of the characters are COOL. (even the main character, eventually, evolves to omghot -- even though he starts as no-good Tsuna, the kind of small, scrawny, talentless, ridiculous loser that's so prevalent in shounen manga.)

So there's Tsuna, the kid who can't do anything right. He's clumsy, last in class, and he skips as often as possible. And of course the girl he likes doesn't even know he exists.

Apparently he's also in line to be the tenth Mafia leader of the most influential mafia family ever, or something. Then a baby hitman (urk I couldn't stand the concept at first) drops in from nowhere and starts training him... Via a magic bullet that gives him five minutes of "dying will" -- as in, after being shot in the head, for five minutes he'll do whatever he regretted the most while "dying" with the kind of passion that you get when dying with regrets. ("ah, if I'd known I would die, I would have done X first" kind of deal.) Sounds pretty stupid like that, but it's fun at least.

And then he starts amassing followers/friends, and AHHH I love them all. T.T

The scanlation group did something weird; they scanlated up until one chapter, and then jumped ahead to the start of an arc, but that's alright because most chapters besides this point were standalones or two, three chapters long arcs, mostly centered on crew antics with some character development. But then the long arc starts and OMG *flails* there's still some crack, but then there's PLOT too and it's a little darker (and omg Gokudera, Hibari, I want your babies -- um. yeah.)

They started a second long arc after that but it's not complete yet. Still... niiice. *_*

And since it's all muffytaj's fault for pimping it and asking for people to fangirl with, I direct you to her post to read her pimping (which is much better than mine) and steal it from her. XD

So... It's very shounen, very funny, some nice action, and very loveable characters. Also I like the art quite a lot. ^^




I should catch up on Berserk, which is utterly awesome in the OHNOES DDDDD: levels it manages to reach, but I am dreading the fallout of the end of this arc so badly. They were so almost happy. T_T

Comments

[sarolynne.livejournal.com]

I was just thinking about making a pimping post for Seirei no Moribito myself. XD

[askerian]

Make one! Make one! :DDDD

[sarolynne.livejournal.com]

XD I will, I will. After I make some screencaps of the first episodes to show off how pretty it is.

[tephra]

I love Seirei no Moribito to pieces. Not only are the characters wonderful (Balsa really rocks my socks, poor Tanda is never going to be the husband in that relationship) but the cultural details and world building.... *geekyfangirlSQUEE!*

The funeral procession... with the standard bearers walking in step so the sound of their footfalls sounded like a thunderous heartbeat.... My inner culture geek fangirled herself unconscious.

[askerian]

Ohhhyes. The cultural details. T____________T ♥ sohappy. *fangirls with*

[golden-ravish.livejournal.com]

i've been wanting to watch Seirei no Moribito, but i'm in the midst of going through Kekkaishi and Darker Than Black. i might be able to squeeze it in, but i don't think my boyfriend will be too happy if i ignore him anymore in favor of anime. ;D

[askerian]

... Fine, fine, we shall allow a slight delay in your anime-watching. u.u

XD;

What are those two series about? Anything good? ^^

[golden-ravish.livejournal.com]

Kekkaishi literally translates to 'barrier master' (or so the anime sub says). its about 2 families who are protecting (for lack of a better term) sacred land. the local school is on top of this location that attractions demons, and the demons who spend more than a few minutes there become more powerful and evil even if they weren't evil before. so these 2 families both have a legitimate successor, in other words a family memeach generation that goes to this site, which also happens to be the local middle and high school, and trap, destroy, and suck up these demons. the story mainly focuses on the current successors, 16-year-old Tokine and 14-year-old Yoshimori. Tokine takes the job extremely seriously, but Yoshimori is more laid back about it...
gah, i could go on about this all day. how bout this:

'Yoshimori Sumimura is a young Kekkaishi (barrier-master) who tries to rid the area of Karasumori of Ayakashi (demons); and it just so happens that this area is in the exact location where he goes to school now. Joining him in the purification of Karasumori is his childhood-friend (and secret crush) Tokine, who is the descendant of the Sumimuras' rival family.'

thats the animenewsnetwork.com blurb about it. i suggest downloading the first 4 or 5 episodes if it kinda sounds like something you'd be interested in. :D


Darker Than Black. now this one, i'm still kinda wondering about myself. its interesting, but up until episode 6 (or maybe it was 7) I had no clue where this story was going.

'In Tokyo, an impenetrable field known as "Hell's Gate" appeared ten years ago. At the same time, psychics who wield paranormal powers at the cost of their conscience also emerged. Hei is one of the most powerful of these psychic agents, and along with his blind associate, Yin, works for one of the many rival agencies vying to unlock the mysteries of Hell's Gate.'

again, thats ann.com's description of it, and after reading that you still really don't have a clue of whats going on. anyway, what keeps me watching is these psychics and their 'obeisance'. everytime they use their powers,whatever these powers may be, they have to do something as 'payment'. what that something is can vary. i've seen people break their fingers, sing, drink beer, dog-ear entire books...
its weird and so i keep watching. lol
but like i said, i think they're starting to get to the point of the story, so we'll see how it goes.

[golden-ravish.livejournal.com]

memeach?????

eek! that was supposed to be 'member each'

....wth is wrong with my fingers today lol

[askerian]

... ohhhhh.

I'll take a look at it. ^_________^ Thanks for the summary! ♥

[tephra]

I have no boyfriend to distract me from my anime. ;)

I'm also enjoying Kekkaishi and Darker than Black, and surprisingly, Rocket Girls is actually good (I thought it would be all moe cheeziness from the write ups I saw).

[golden-ravish.livejournal.com]

hmm, i think i'll give that a try too. i'm always looking for new stuff to watch

[tephra]

It's a lot better than I thought it would be.

Japan is trying to put a human in space with their own space agency so they're down in the Solomon Islands trying to make a light reusable capsule and rocket booster. They haven't been having much luck, their test launches all go BOOM, much to the amusement of the native tribe in the area.

Enter Yukari Morita, who's on the island trying to find her dad who disappeared on the island while on his honeymoon. She meets the one astronaut in the program while he's trying to run away and ends up making a deal, do this job "that a monkey could do" for the head of the program and he'll help her find her dad. They don't tell her that the "little job" is being the new astronaut until they have her on base. :D

[golden-ravish.livejournal.com]

i'm going to download a few eps when i get home. where do u download it from? i typically get most of my stuff through animesuki.com

[tephra]

I've been watching the We Suck subs, but they remove the episodes as the DVDs are released in Japan so the first two episodes are gone already. Another group has finished it though and both are listed on Animesuki.

[granate.livejournal.com]

I'm going to check out Seirei no Moribito for sure! Thanks for the pimpage. Your last batch of artworks were lovely, btw. For some reason, Sasuke's glove just PWNS me. *_* Gorgeous, as always!

[animeprincess.livejournal.com]

Asuka, you make all animes sound good. yer pimpin is made of win.

fwee *flail*

[maldoror-gw.livejournal.com]

Where can we get the 'Katekyo Hitman Reborn' scanlations? *is curious about hot shonen guys*

[askerian]

You mean apart from stealing it from muffytaj?
http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=0H6WN0X8
http://www.megaupload.com/fr/?d=SO3AERKM

Scanlation is, I think, by We, The Fans.

http://www.kefi.org/reborn.php

But they're not offering the first volumes for download anymore because it's been licensed. ;__; So, yeah, better use megaupload for that. >__>;;

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

Yay! Another Seirei fan! I think everyone agrees that the art is beautiful, it just adds so much to the world. The style, the customs, it just makes you to see more! *cough* yeah, I want nine to come out.