By now, people all over the world must be making a fuss over KyoAni’s alleged cancellation of the supposedly upcoming anime adaptation of the FYG manga Tonari no 801-chan. KyoAni has not disclosed the true reasons behind this, and despite how the future of a Tonari no 801-chan anime seems bleak at the moment, they sure have succeeded in peaking people’s interest over this manga(s) / drama (apparently, the manga has been adapted to a DVD-only live-action movie (shall we call this ODV - Original Drama Video?) and I only knew about it today). Case in point would be yours truly, who just got herself to do a little research on the series, and is now itching to read the manga and/or watch the live-action adaptation. A pretty damn good marketing strategy I should say, KEIKAKU DOORI or not.

I was browsing MOONPHASE today, checking out updates regarding Skip Beat’s website, much to surprise that what I saw was this new anime among the list (with its homepage now up too!): Asaki Yumemishi. The first thing that came to my mind was the recently released PC game of the same name, but of course there’s no way that could happen. Just as I [later on] thought, it’s the adaptation of Waki Yamato’s epic Tale of Genji manga (based on the epic Tale of Genji novel, of course). Now, all the ones who watched Kure-nai and had no prior knowledge about this novel will be able to see the light! Or something.

Looks like this news came out real early, like way back 5 or so days ago. Katsuyuki Konishi is casted as Ren! I know people are having mixed feelings over this news, and those who already had this image of Ren (with their ideal seiyuu to boot) are especially disappointed.

I’d like to think that I’m a bit on the “yay!” side with this one. I was trying to recall Katsuyuki Konishi’s voice as Soubi (Loveless), Ousaki-sempai (La Corda d’ Oro), etc., and it initially didn’t quite fit the supposedly ‘image’ I had of Ren. But then I read the manga, and started imagining how it would seem like with Katsuyuki Konishi’s voice, and I actually found it fitting for his snarky, somewhat egotistic yet gentle character.

People still had doubts over the unofficial announcement I posted about the Skip Beat seiyuu cast, and I was even thought to be a troll by other ones who don’t know me or this blog and thought that I was just spreading false news like the rest of the 2ch people. That actually bruised my ego. I mean, do I ever look like a troll and/or a liar?! I know I lied once for the April Fool’s joke, and I guess I’m reaping the consequences of it. But oh well, this is the internet for you. I didn’t have solid proof of the news anyways, so who am I get hurt for something I didn’t deserve to be trusted with, right? Better safe than sorry, as they say. Still, thanks to all the people who actually trusted the words of this unknown blogger, despite how unofficial that announcement was *hugs*

Good news people (at least to those who found this new cast to be good), this news has been confirmed by several Japanese bloggers I’ve seen around the net in my lurk today. We can’t possibly go wrong with Japanese fans who have actual copies of Hana to Yume raving over this news now, right? I’m still on the lookout for more official news on this one, for those who still deem this to be unreliable.

I just couldn’t afford to have this news as an ‘Aside’ post, this needs as much spotlight as it can.

So while I’m still writing my post with shoujo manga recommendations, in which I was going all “I worship Yoshiki Nakamura ^:)^”, this announcement just had to come at the best possible time, making me reach a state of fangurl nirvana. To those who are not familiar with Skip Beat, it’s a manga by the god Yoshiki Nakamura-sama I mentioned, whose previous work Tokyo Crazy Paradise will forever be in my GREATEST SHOUJO MANGAS Hall of Fame. I fail as a Nakamura fan however, coz I haven’t been catching up with the Awesome Skip Beat!! orz *spanks self*

My eyes shot wide open at the headline: “New School Rumble Anime This July!”

I love the tagline of this series, “People become stronger when they find someone they ought to protect”. rawr, so GAR

Not too long ago, I pointed out Kurenai as one of the animes I’m looking forward to in the Spring Lineup. Yes, I’m looking that far ahead. Although I don’t have the actual novel in my hands, I managed to find it *cough* somewhere else *cough* It took me weeks of perseverance, to keep me from buying the novels on impulse. I thought hard, wondering if it’ll be worth my time and money, considering the pile of unread mangas and novels (*cough* Saiunkoku *cough*) I have. I browsed through the novels again, supposedly for dispelling my excitement (the want-to-buy-it kind of excitement) for it, only to end up failing to resist it more orz.

Last season, I initially planned to cook-up a comprehensive first impressions post on the fall animes I watched, but before I even got a glimpse of most of them, I already found myself joining the bandwagon of blogging Shugo Chara, KimiKiss, My Condolences Ninomiya-kun, and Suteki Tantei Labyrinth. In the end, my originally intended post never materialized. I dropped one show after another as time went by, leaving only KimiKiss (and the Shugo Chara manga, if that counts) in my current blogging schedule. I lost the passion and drive to blog Saiunkoku and Emily along the way as well, and up until now I’m still trying to rekindle that flame =__=

This time around, I decided to take it slow, to delight in what the Winter ‘08 animes has to offer, before deciding on which shows to blog. Despite how several shows piqued my interest, namely True Tears, Persona, Porfy no Nagai Tabi, Shigofumi, Spice and Wolf, Hatenkou Yuugi, Hakaba Kitarou and KimiAru, I can’t seem to bring myself to write about these shows. These animes struck a chord with me, but somehow, it wasn’t enough inspiration for a write-up (the KimiAru deep frying I did isn’t really a proper write-up, but just a random “lol”).

Winter’s Block is making me feel like a sad girl in the snow. It’s not you, winter animes, it’s me.

I’ve never been a good writer. If there’s one thing that blogging has really taught me, it’s that I should not have taken reading [English books] and writing for granted, during the “formative years” of my life. Sorry, mom, I now realize how foolish I am for not listening to your advice. But that’s not the point. The thing is, with the lack of ability to articulately express myself, especially for shows I can’t [fully] get into, I am not able to churn out a “worthwhile” post. With this, I come to the conclusion that the problem lies with me and my current Winter’s Block. The most plausible and convenient reason I can think of behind this phenomenon is that, I left my heart somewhere else, in the season of Spring~ yes that’s right. Deliberately or not, I found myself not wanting to become attached to the Winter shows, in light of what is to come in the next season. I feel like singing, “O Come All Ye Spring 2008 Animes” now, actually

My Newtype magazines just made this worse, as it allowed me to do some sort of “time leap”, and I became excited for what Spring ‘08 has to offer instead. I guess this also explains why I wasn’t able to cook up a Winter 2008 Anime “Menu” / Season Preview? Though I think I owe much of that to laziness, procrastination, and loneliness (bunnies need company to be able to GIVE IT ALL THEY’VE GOT, after all)
Having known the roots of my Winter’s Block, I obviously cannot go about proclaiming how the Winter season of animes suck. I’ve already lost the “right” to proclaim that with what I’ve mentioned thus far. If you’re looking for a guide for the Winter season of shows, I’m sorry to say that I cannot be a hermit bunny at this state of hibernation. And besides, there are other blogs out there which are more qualified for that, IMO. So instead of forcing myself to post about the current shows [halfheartedly], I’ll just stick to what I’ve already been doing and continue to look at what lies ahead, while not losing focus of the present (aka watching Winter shows, and blogging what I’m supposed to). Allow me then to guide you into the world of Spring! Wai~ So yeah, all this lengthy introduction is just to tell you guys, that I’ll be providing “Snapshots of Spring 2008″ in the coming months, as I scan pages from Newtype / Animedia, for the greater good. ^^;;;

Enjoy the pics~! Let’s all be happy and look forward to Spring! =3

Can’t wait to see more Sousuke and Chidori!

So I heard that Full Metal Panic is reairing in Japan. I first learned about this news from double of Furu Anime Panikku, but with a little prodding from jinya of the ab channel, I decided to join in the fun in announcing this interesting news, [...]