sigh I finally started getting my consumption up again. I was so busy at the end of last month, I could barely keep up (I almost forgot about this website). I’m away from work now (as a result of surgery last week) and am finally able to read my manga. Actually, that’s one of the few things I can actually do. I’ve been reading through a few series that I’ve read before like doubt and tramps like us—which is always enjoyable. Its been so long since I’ve read them, I’d completely forgotten how they ended.

I’ve also been able to watch 2 full anime series this month. Yatta! Hoop days is pretty fun-I especially like the music. Actually, it was pretty painful; because it would cause me to laugh and aggravate my stitches. Still lots of fun. I’m not sure about the CG in it tho-I think it was too early in the development stage.

Pretear was ok—it was very cute. I’m not normally a ‘cute’ anime fan; but I was definitely in the mood for it. I’m looking forward to more anime conventions this summer so that I can complete some of my anime box sets.

I got busy this month and My consumption has dropped exponentially. But, I should be getting back on track pretty soon. I mostly just read the few new Manga’s that I had bought for this month. I’ve also begun reading Shusaku Endo’s books. I’m really enjoying them and would definitely recommend them to anyone! Completely worthwhile!

I bought this book because I am considering an ESL/Christian missions position in Japan. I was really excited about this book, but unfortunately, it sucks!

The structure of the book isn’t suiting my purposes. Rather than an account of the missionary’s personal adventures in Japan, this is a basic encyclopedic explanation of very basic and standard Japanese symbols, such as green tea… and pachinko…

To summarize each short description (which are excruciatingly poor) the author added a ‘relevent’ Bible verse and a short prayer. I didn’t mind the author’s attempt at connecting Biblical truth to the culture of Japan; a very difficult task, but many of her connections seemed forced, to say the least!

The author has apparently not had any direction from her editor. The text is overly-symplistic; with blatant grammatical errors. I can’t imagine that this writing could be acceptable from anyone above the fifth grade level! This is supposed to have been written by an english teacher!

At any rate, this is a poorly written—and relatively useless book. Unless you know the author personally, I would dissuade you from buying it!

I’ve been busy with a job prospect and a very intensive interview process lately that I’ve been slower than usual on my consumption. I have completed a few movies, none of which were spectacular; though I did really enjoy ‘Nanami-chan’. It’s Totemo Kawaii desu ne! Really cute. I also got to watch Haibane Renmei which I was looking forward to (and not at all a disappointment). Something I was disappointed in was the movie the Holiday; I really had higher hopes for it. Maybe next month I’ll have a chance to consume more items; but it doesn’t look too hopeful if this job pulls through for me. I have to take my 50 library books back to the library tomorrow, I have little time to read right now.

This manga is fascinating. It’s such a calmness about it, but with a thriller mentality; if that isn’t an oxymoron I don’t know what is! Rather than really being about this mysterious ‘immortal’ girl; the story focuses on the family that she’s been watching since it’s inception.

Why is she spending her immortality on something seamingly so menial? Very curious.

This is such a delightful read—I highly recommend it!

*This is the third volume in a series. I don’t think the other two have been translated in English.

I watched this anime to find out if the ani-manga I read recently(of the same title) was a reflection of a bad anime. I was delightfully surprised—I enjoyed this anime immensley. I was really interested in the ending, and I liked the direction the story took. I still have a lot of unanswered questions; so I’ll be watching this again (hopefully soon).

For those of you considering reading the ani-manga, let me strongly caution you against making a terrible, horrible, and regrettable mistake. The anime is definitely the way to go for this series.

I was surprised by this movie.

I was surprised by how obvious Cameron Diaz was in her acting: it was straight script regergitation, and very poor at that. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt the whole time, thinking that she had to act stiff because she was unable to cry. But even in her predictable end, I was unmoved and she was annoyingly emotionless. I was not impressed by her at all, and even though I’ve liked her movies in the past, I think I will be stearing clear of her future endeavors.

I was also surprised by Jack Black. One of the reasons I didn’t care to see this movie in the first place turned into one of the few things I liked in the end.

All in all the movie was okay. I have no complaints about a nice romantic comedy, and I have no complaints about the general story, but I will probably not be watching this again anytime soon. Cameron Diaz’s acting was so incredibly bad that it overshadows any of the other ‘good’ qualities and acting that this movie should be proud of.

My public library’s series of Adolf starts at Volume 2. I hate reading books out of order, especially manga. I’ve just received notification that the library has ordered Volume 1 (and I’m 10th in line for it). It could take a couple months for the book to be processed and catalogued, but I’m going to wait, and try to read this series properly…in order.

This is one seriously depressing book about some seriously intense school bullying. Every chapter it gets worse-and it makes you think hard about how you would handle the main character’s (Anzai-san’s) situation. I’m not usually a fan of drama-but because this goes way beyond the usual ‘angst’—it’s surprisingly effective at keeping my attention. It also has the capacity to bring your mood down a notch, so I don’t recommend reading this when you’re already depressed…that would not be fun.

This arc is getting exciting again—after all that training. I’m really looking forward to the manga version of the fight between Naruto and Gaara. On the other hand, I’m really dreading the fight between the 3rd Hokage and Orochimaru. I know it was an important fight, but the anime just dragged and dragged… I hope the manga handles it better.