Major Updates!

As you can see, I replace my banner, add top links and add an RSS Feed sign on the side of my blog. Aside from that, to add more design in my blog, I created Review Headers so that my reviews won't look stale. Here are some samples.

For Anime/Toku Reviews.

For Manga Reviews.

I am planning to edit all my headers within next week. :) I will not create headers for my book reviews since it is hard to look for pictures that came exactly from the book... unless it is illustrated, I will make one.

Bleeding Love. Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge Anime Review.

Since Valentine’s Day is over, this would be my Post-Valentine’s Day review.

Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge or best known by North American audiences as The Wallflower is a 25-episode anime based by the manga written and illustrated by Tomoko Hayakawa which up until now, is still on going with individual chapters serialized in Bessatsu Friend since 2000. The anime was adapted by Nippon Animation which aired on TV Tokyo and TV Aichi from October 3, 2006 through March 27, 2007.

Due to the popularity here in the Philippines, this show is one of the top searches in Yahoo! Philippines back when it first aired here and is one of the frequently requested shows to reair by fans.

The show kicks of with the events that happened on our lead female’s middle school year. She was dumped by his crushed by saying these words, “I hate ugly girls.” This caused our lead’s heart to break and turn into the “dark side.”

On the present, four boys who are renting a mansion owned by a Landlady which the call her, “Auntie”, asked them to turn her niece into a lady, to be exact, a Yamato Nadeshiko, an ideal Japanese lady. In case they fail, they will pay their current rent, triple. Thinking that this is an easy task considering that these boys are heartthrobs, they accepted the challenge.

Who are these boys? Here is a short introduction. Yukinojo Toyama or best known as Yuki is a boy who often cross-dresses and often mistaken for a girl due to the fact that he looks convincing like a girl. Next is Ranmaru Mori, the group’s playboy who is known to hit 2 or more girls at the same time AND sometimes hit married women! Next is Takenaga Oda, is the smartest in the group. He is the son of a well-known family that’s best known for flower arrangement. Both Takenaga and Ranmaru by the way are rich kids. Lastly, is Kyouhei Takano, the sort of leader of this quartet, extremely handsome that even his male bosses harassed him and caused many fan girls melt into either a puddle or nosebleeds every time he arrives.

These boys are now waiting for the arrival of Sunako, the Landlady’s niece, until finally; she arrives, in a very odd way. Yuki noticed that there is something moving in the bush of the mansion, he peeked and the boys get the surprise of their life! Sunako crawled out from the bush ala Sadako from The Ring fame! After the boys stopped screaming, they finally confirmed, this is Sunako.

Like her namesake, Sunako is a pun of Sadako from The Ring fame. When Sunako first arrived in the Nakahara mansion, she dons a hairdo similar to Sadako and wears a long sleeved white shirt.

We later on learned that Sunako was the girl who was dumped by her crush back in middle school. Because of the events that happened, she decided to turn into the dark side… literally. She started loving gore, horror, darkness and developed a fear of “radiant” people such as the boys. If she saw one, she will nosebleed. The boys therefore conclude, to transform Sunako into a Lady is indeed a challenging task.

As the series progressed, the boys tried their best to transform her into a Yamato Nadeshiko and sometimes ending not successful… HOWEVER, they almost turn her into a Lady once but it was only temporary. A Love story developed from the unlikely couple of Sunako and Kyouhei. On some episodes, Auntie pops up to either ask the rent or show up in an event with her current boyfriend.

Two girls related to our two boys are introduced to be exact Takenaga and Ranmaru and they are Noi and Kikono. Noi is one of the students in the school where Sunako and the boys study while Kikono is Ranmaru’s fiancé.

On to the review, the basic of every Romantic Comedy genre show or film is that both Comedy and Romance is well balance but in YamaNade’s case, the show is loads of comedy that is why I liked it. It is not cheesy like a certain overrated love story coming from Hana Yori Dango, but something unique they you might even say to yourself, “Hey, why didn’t they thought of that?”

Sunako is the mix of your everyday Goth Girl that likes to say what she feels while Kyouhei is the everyday handsome jerk the most girls fell in love with. Put them together, we have a love story that can be compared and contrast or even would give Hana Yori Dango’s Tsukasa and Tsukushi a run for their popularity.

Another funny couple in the show is Takenaga and Noi, what makes it funny is that every time these two tried to kiss, they will be interrupted by anyone who is available!

The show also has a similarity to Hana Yori Dango, aside from the top examples, the four boys reminded me of F4 only poorer and Sunako is the girl who is caught between the flowers.

For the show’s comedy, there are couples of episodes that will cause you to fall in your chair and laugh and those are The Pirate Island Episode, The First Episode and my personal favorite, The Valentine’s Day Episode. The show made a good use of Sunako’s super-deformed mode to give an emphasis that this part of the show is not that serious. Chibi Sunako carried the comedy of both the manga and the anime. That is why I was wondering how the live-action adaptation of the show could can pull of the show’s comedy.

One thing I liked about this show is the segment called; “The Path of Being a Lady” in which the Japanese dub of the show had a narrator that sounds like Yoichi of Eyeshield 21 fame but in the Filipino dub, the narrator sounded like some guy from a circus which adds to humor of the segment. In the manga, if my memory serves me correctly, this segment does not exist. This segment adds more depth on how to teach Sunako into a prim and proper Lady.

To the disappointments, since the source material, the original comic is still on its run (And up until now, it is still ongoing) while the show is still airing, some chapters, which are very important to the show, are not included. A perfect example is the introduction of someone who likes Sunako in the form a guy who resembles Kyouhei with the glass and a lot more thinner. A very short segment in which we learned that Yuki has a girlfriend…that was very surprising. Sunako’s Middle School Class Reunion in which we finally met the one who dumped her and lastly, *cue in the angry fan girls* Sunako and Kyouhei’s second kiss. 

Overall, YamaNade is a great Romantic Comedy show that would cause you to really laugh out laud and get touched in some episodes, to be exact how the boys first met and when Kyouhei returned to his parent’s house. This show is a perfect to those who watched Hana Yori Dango who wants something fresh. If I would be given the chance to pick a show to watch all over again, I would pick this. Hope the producers decided to create a Season 2!

Goseiger Initial Reactions

The last time I watched Super Sentai was last December thanks to Gekiranger. Since Shinkenger has just finished, I decided to watch Goseiger every week, just for me to revive my full interest on the Super Sentai franchise. Now, here’s what I say on the first episode.

To be honest, I am not used with Sentai roll calls similar to Goseiger. In case you don’t know the usual roll call here it is, the Red Ranger will first do his introduction then the Blue and Green/Black then the Yellow and Pink/White. But in Gosei, It was Red, Pink, Black, Yellow and Blue. There is a similar case in Gekiranger but it was easier to digest. There is a lot of time to get used to it.

Since the Gosei Angels are warriors in training, there are some instances that Alata felt that he is not ready to lead the Goseigers. To be exact, when he accidentally lost his Change Card. He is quite an airhead but it is not an excuse to be irresponsible. That is why it felt that Agri or Hyde should lead the Goseigers.

A Card-based Battle System was first used in Kamen Rider Ryuki and Shinkenger had a run on it once thanks to the Decade crossover. A Card System has its own disadvantage and that is, one you weren’t able to insert the card or left the card somewhere, you cannot transform AND you need to summon your weapon via cards. But it has its own advantage, in terms of selling toys, cards are very collectible and in terms of realism, a card-based system is more realistic in some sense.

In terms of story, Goseiger had a potential to create an epic storyline. I mean, Angels sent from heaven to protect humans and the ones on Earth are just in-training? To add the depth, there is an invading alien force coming towards Earth. But the story also reminded me of Fiveman. Fiveman’s story is five siblings who are protectors of the Earth and fighting alien invaders that killed their parents earlier in the series. In Goseiger, if my memory serves me correctly, Agri and Moune and siblings while Alata and Eri came from the same tribe.

Overall, the first episode gave me a good impression to continue watching the series till the very end.

Tendou's Wife is An Awesome Singer.

Not exactly Souji Tendou of Kamen Rider Kabuto but his actor, Hiro Mizushima. He was married to a singer named Ayaka. To be honest, I am not a big fan of Ayaka so I don’t care if he married to the Man Who Walks the Path of Heaven… until I watched one episode of a TV show in NHK World, that is when I realized, Hiro is one lucky dude.

Aside that Ayaka is beautiful, she is a great singer. After hearing one song, which started first in acapella then the music of the song started playing. I was like, wow, even I don’t understand what she is saying, and the song touched my heart. If you don’t have the idea, here’s the concert video of the song, Minna Sora no Shita.

To end my post, the literal translation of the song is related to what Souji Tendou/KR Kabuto always did, the song’s literally translation is We Belong in the Same Sky. How is that for the Tendou reference? Hope that the two will have a happy marriage and someday, we will see either young Hiros or young Ayakas wearing a Kamen Rider Kabuto costume! :)

D.Gray-Man Premieres on TV5!

After months of reruns, a new show will finally premiere on TV5! Back on one of my post, D.Gray-man is one of the shows rumored to air on Philippines’ Anime Authority on Free TV.

I think the following TV commecial would be self explanatory.

Based on past TV5 experience, the longest show that aired on TV5 was Midori no Makibao followed by Ranma ½ that aired 2 and ¼ seasons of the said show. Hope that they will finish this show, considering that D.Gray-man a show with 100+ episodes.

According to reliable sources that Telesuccess Productions (Known Works Include: Code Geass, Hunter X Hunter, Shaman King and the Heisei Kamen/Masked Rider Franchise) started dubbing the show last year.

D.Gray-man premieres on March 1 replacing Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2’s timeslot at 7:30pm only on TV5 Animega!

Artist Spotlight: Mayu Shinjo

Today's Artist Spotlight focuses on manga artist Mayu Shinjo. She's best known for titles such as Love Celeb, Haou Airen, and Kaikan Phrase. Kaikan Phrase (aka Sensual Phrase) received an anime adaptation back in 1999.

As far as I know, only Haou Airen and Sensual Phrase are available in America. Both series were licensed by Viz Media.

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Happy (Belated) 2nd Anniversary HFG!

You know you're busy when you forget your blog's anniversary. That's right, I actually forgot that February 7th was HFG's second anniversary. So, umm, happy 2nd anniversary!

In all seriousness, some of you longtime readers may have noticed that posts have been less frequent than they have in the past. It's not because of a lack of material or anything like that. It's mainly because my life has taken a turn where I don't have the time to post everyday anymore.

I appreciate every single person who checks out HFG, comments, or posts something in the shoutbox. I still enjoy doing this blog. Since I don't have as much time, my goal is to make sure that whatever I do post is going to be worth the wait.

While I'm not doing anything to mark HFG's anniversary this time around, some stuff is in the works. One immediate thing I'm working on is an FAQ for the blog for first-time visitors. If there are any questions you've always wanted to ask me, send them to me and I might answer them in the FAQ.

Also, All-Request Week is making a comeback in the spring and this summer, I would like to give the site itself a facelift.

Thanks for sticking with this blog for two years. I hope you'll continue to check it out for more.

Madan Senki Ryukendo Series Review.

Madan Senki Ryukendo is a tokusatsu series aired on TV Aichi from January 8 to December 31, 2006.

The story is about a secret organization S.H.O.T. (Shoot Hell Obduracy Troopers), protecting the City of Akebono from the Jamanga who is gathering Minus Energy which will be used to revive their leader, DaiMaOh. To protect the city, S.H.O.T., with the fusion of magic and technology created two arsenals to defeat Jamanga and these are GekiRyuKen and GouRyuGun. Jushiro Fudo is fighting the Jamanga threat with his partner, GouRyuGun.

Enter Kenji Narukami, a newcomer in Akebono who later works for the police. He is by the way, a student of the Narukami Ryujinryu Style, a fighting style that is designed to defeat demons. Because of one incident involving a giant monster, GekiRyuKen chose Kenji as his partner and because of this, Kenji transforms into Ryukendo!

As the series progressed, Ryukendo earns more upgrades, a rival in the name of Jark Moon and we are slowly introduced to Jamanga’s notable leaders, namely, Lady Gold and Baron Bloody.

Also, a third Madan Warrior was introduced in the of Ryujinou who at first, is fighting against S.H.O.T. because of his grudge against one member and later, fighting with them when he found out that certain member of S.H.O.T. didn’t kill his parents.

On to my review, at first, Ryukendo felt like a Kamen Rider Blade rip-off. If you are asking why, here is the answer. Ryugunoh in the senior of Ryukendo, like what Garren is to Blade, and oh, Garren and Ryugunoh both wield the same type of weapon and color scheme. Also, like Ryugunou, Ryukendo and Blade wield the same type of weapon, a sword. To add more Kamen Rider reference, Jark Moon’s mask kinda resembles Kamen Rider Knight from Ryuki and the Madan Warriors also ride motorcycles AND sometimes does an opening kick to the enemy and there is one episode where Kenji’s seniors did a “Double Friendship Kick”.

Enough with the Kamen Rider stuff, on to the review. To be honest, I find Ryukendo at first not my type until Jark Moon was introduced. The show first followed a certain pattern and that is, monsters appear, Ryukendo wins and gets the key, earn upgrades, end of story. And this never ending process ended until Jark Moon appeared. He gave the show breathe of fresh air by giving Ryukendo a good rival and sometimes, I pity Ryukendo because he wasn’t able to defeat Jark Moon even with all the upgrades.

A good thing about this show is the show’s weapon system in the form of keys. It gave show uniqueness considering that the current trend of tokusatsu uses either cards or the good ol’ fashion way. What’s more, the keys need to be “purified” before being used and we saw its effect on Ryukendo when he hastily used the powerful Thunder Key.

In terms of the story, it’s balanced and realistic. It is neither cheesy nor corny. It sometimes whips couples of comedic scenes which fit for the timing of a certain scene. One of my personal faves was the scene were the trio transforms in the men’s comfort room!

One of the best things about Ryukendo is that it returned to the classic villain plans ridiculous plan that would cause fear to the masses. To those who don’t know what this is, here is a quick lesson. In one episode, Jamanga turned almost everyone in Akebono into human balloons. Unlike the regular classic setup, the causing of fear would help the Jamanga gather necessary Minus Energy for the revival of DaiMaOh.

One of the things that I would praise about the show is the suit designs especially when Ryukendo equips the Thunder Eagle in his armor and Ryujinou’s basic design.

The only thing disappointing about the show is that Ryukendo felt like he is an overpowered hero considering he gets a lot of upgrades unlike from his fellow Madan Warriors.

Overall, if you want to watch a tokusatsu that is not produced by Toei that has good quality, great suit designs and a decent plot that is worth of your time, Ryukendo might be the show for you.

Ukiya Was Bored: Random Anime Stuff... Pinoy Style!

Due to my boredom, I decided to recollect lines, scenes and anything random that are too memorable in anime that aired here in the Philippines, let’s start this show with a bang with this opening… you can sing along if you want to, I know you will.

That theme song coming from Voltes V is one of the most memorable things coming from the show, and here are more:

+ Lines:
VOLLLTESSS FIVEEEEE-VUH!
ULTRAELCTROMAGNETIC TOP/WHIP!
LAAAASEEER SWOOORD!
+ The ending theme. Nuff. Said.

+ The sorta “Danger Theme”. I think this is familiar. "Teterenten.. tetetenten! Te! Te te te te te te!" Sorry, I can't find the music.

+ In Flame of Recca, I think the name Lorkan is familiar. If you don’t know him, you best remember him as the kid who owns a weapon in which can be transformed into a giant scissor, a knife thing and he scared the face of the guy who is too handsome to be scared. I mean seriously, who would name his son Lorkan?! And, and were did the guys behind the dubbing team of Flame of Recca get the name?!

+ Jeremiah of Ghost Fighter and his IBC and Sensui Arc voice. I mean, he I mean, she sounds like a dunk Chinese man!

+ Another one from Ghost Fighter, “Tapusin! Tapusin! Tapusin! (Lit. Trans. As Finish It! Finish It! Finish It!)” line from the crowd anyone?

That's all I can remember right now. XD

More Fist of The North Star

Today's post features more pics from Fist of The North Star. In addition to a few pics from a calendar, this post also includes some artwork from the upcoming video game Hokuto Musou, which combines Fist of The North Star with the Dynasty Warriors engine. It hits stores in Japan next month. After the rest of the pics, check out the game's trailer.

Wake Up! Kamen Rider Kiva Series Review.

Kamen Rider Kiva is the ninth series of the Heisei Era of the Kamen Rider franchise. The show is said to have a horror film theme with our lead Rider, Kiva being based on a vampire and his Arm Monsters being based on various movie monsters. This show kicks off on the 70th birthday of the show’s creator, Shotaro Ishinomori.

Since I am pretty busy, I will quote the summary of the first episode from Wikipedia:

In 1986, at a funeral, a recently deceased man wakes up from his coffin and transforms into a monster known as Fangire. After he attacks a young woman, draining her of her Life Energy and turning her into a material similar to glass, the Spider Fangire is confronted by a woman named Yuri Aso, who attempts to destroy him before he escapes. Later, at the Café mald'amour, Yuri's employer Mamoru Shima tells her to target a young businessman named Kaoru Tsugami, who actually is the Horse Fangire. She finds Tsugami as he is about to eat his sixth secretary, but he calls his bodyguards to hold her off. Though she manages to give them the slip, she is too late to save the woman as she fights the Horse Fangire. However, before the fight could go any further, she is stopped by the man she met while escaping Tsugami's bodyguards: Otoya Kurenai. This little distraction allowed Tsugami to escape.

~~~

Twenty-two years later in 2008, a young man named Wataru Kurenai is gathering fish bones for a project of his to create the ultimate violin varnish, attracting the attention of Yuri's daughter, Megumi Aso, who makes him realize he is not allergic to the world. Megumi soon attracts Tsugami's attention, inviting her to model for his studio as an excuse to feed on her. However, Megumi uses Tsugami's scheme to get to him to finish what her mother started. Angry for being tricked, Tsugami assumes his true form and attempts to kill Megumi until Wataru arrives, with Kivat-bat the 3rd allowing him to transform into Kamen Rider Kiva and battle the Horse Fangire. After Kiva shatters the Fangire with his Darkness Moon Break, Castle Doran emerges to devour the Horse Fangire's soul before it can escape. Once the fight ends, however, Megumi attempts to take down Kiva.

As the series progressed, we are introduced Nago Keisuke, a bounty hunter who has an odd hobby of collecting buttons from his victims and the user of the IXA (Intercept X Attacker) System in the year 2008. While on 1986, we are introduced to Jirou, a regular of the café in which the organization were Yuri is working in hang out. Otoya later discovers that his rival is a Wolfen, a werewolf based monster and one of the three races that the Fangires anhilated.

We are then slowly introduced to the Checkmate Four, the leaders of the Fangire race and the reason why the events that happened to the 80’s are important to the events in 2008.

On to my review, when I first watched Kiva, I said to myself, what is the point of having a 1986 storyline in a show that focuses only to Kiva/Wataru Kurenai if they can do a 2-3 part episode about the origin of Kiva like what Agito did? As the show progressed, I slowly understand why the 1986 timeline is important. All the events that happened in the 80’s are connected to the present.

Now, to the individual storyline per timeline, in the 1986 timeline, it was focused on Otoya, the father of Wataru/Kamen Rider Kiva and his adventures. While on the 2008 timeline, it was focused on Wataru’s development as a person. To be honest, there are some instances that Otoya felt like he is the show’s lead and not his son. I mean seriously, he carries the show. Wataru’s story felt like climax on what Otoya did considering that he mostly finishes the Fangire that the 80’s Blue Sky Organization didn’t finished.

Kiva carried what Den-O left… and these are: time travel and mecha battles. I have nothing against with these because the time travel bit connected the 80’s and 2008, while the mecha battles help finished the Fangire that combined together and formed into. A. Giant. Monster. Wow. The gap between Super Sentai and Kamen Rider is slowly diminishing.

As for the character development, Wataru is by far, one of the best examples of character development in Kamen Rider. First, he started out as a person who is “allergic” to the world. Slowly, he is opening up to people aside from Shizuka, first it was Megumi then Nago and the list goes on. From a regular shut-in, he transformed into a badass Rider… even though he seldom uses his bike and later appeared in Decade as the representative of the Heisei Seniors Riders.

As for the show’s vampires, the Fangires, they returned my losing faith on vampires. They returned the sorta immortal (Heck, the Spider Fangire was alive for more than one episode!) and blood (In Fangire’s case, life) sucking creatures with epic stain-glass features and chess references. But even with the good things about it, like most vampires, it MUST have a love story. In the 80’s we have the love triangle between Jacob-Bella-Edward I mean, Yuri-Otoya-Maya. One thing that I liked about the 80’s love story is that Maya started out as someone who is experimenting about loving humans but in the end, he fell for Otoya. While for Yuri, she is a member of the Blue Sky Organization who at first, fell in love with Jirou and slowly harbors feelings for Otoya. Unlike certain Twilight, their love story has a certain depth. While in 2008, it is about the love story of Wataru and Mio who doesn’t know that they are enemies. Tragic. In terms of the 2008 love story, it is pretty common at first until it develops a twist at the middle of the love story.

Now to the disappointments, first, is the overuse of Kiva’s Emperor Form. To be honest, most ultimate or final forms are used if the enemy is strong. In Kiva’s case, after its first appearance, he frequently used it and there are times that I forgot that he has a base form! Even Tatsulot explains that the Emperor Form is Kiva’s “true form”. Shut up, bat-like dragon thing. After he was able to pull the Zanbat Sword from the wall of Castle Doran, which is when it felt that Emperor Form is one of the weakest ultimate forms I have ever seen next to Den-O’s Liner Form.

Another disappointment is the lack of motorcycle action. Its predecessor, Den-O has a lot of biking action thanks to its used as the train’s steering and Den-O’s (not Ryotaro’s) regular transportation. In Kiva, we barely saw his bike the last time we saw it is when he attacks a bunch of Fangires while going to his mother’s place as for Nago’s bike, IXAlion, the last time we saw it is after he fought Kiva with his bike attached with Buron Booster and don’t get me started with it! So far, those disappointments never ruined the plot.

Overall, Kamen Rider Kiva is so far, one of my favorites in the Heisei era. It has a balanced plot and is close to the original Kamen Rider theme.

New Kuroshitsuji

This July, a brand new season of Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler) will begin airing in Japan. However, instead of focusing on Sebastian & Ciel, it will focus on a new butler and master. A pic of the new duo Claude Faustus (butler) and Alois Trancy (master) is above.

The new characters were designed by the creator of the manga and I appreciate that the new master looks a little older than Ciel. However, I think Sebastian is a little hotter than Claude. Judge for yourself by checking out the pics below, which include a couple more of the new characters and pics of characters from the manga and first anime series.

By the way, the manga is now available in America from Yen Press.

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Dragon Ball Z

Checking out the comments in the Shoutbox, someone wondered about Dragon Ball Z. I've done only one DBZ post and that one featured just two pictures of Trunks. It's about time for the buff guys of this quintessential fighting anime to get their due. I'm not really a fan of this show anymore but it'll have a place in my heart as one of the first anime I ever got into.

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