You know that the manga-to-anime transition is good when you watch the anime, read the manga, go back and watch the anime again and wonder when a certain manga-only character is going to show up.

I swear, I've seen Hajime no Ippo like 5 times and I've been reading the manga (all 764 chapters so far) and I went back to watch the anime AGAIN the other day and the whole time, I was thinking....when's Itagaki going to show up? :O

It's so weird because I can even imagine the type of voice he'd have. This mind-boggles me. It probably shouldn't, but it does.

Another anime that did it well, I think, is Death Note. I got impatient for a new episode when 12 came out, so I went ahead and read the whole manga and it completely KILLED my desire to watch the anime. The manga is soooo good and the anime follows it really, really well. *sigh*

Lesson: Watch the anime first, THEN read the manga. The manga often has all sorts of extra stuff that wasn't included in the anime and can be appreciated, but if you read the manga first, the anime will just seem 'blah' in comparison. Well, in most cases, anyway.

Very Late MYV Squee: I finally got around to reading about an LJer's trip to Vegas to see Miyavi from February. I watched the videos and everything....maaaaan. Meevers totally paused while performing to POSE for the people taking pictures of him! *sobjealoussob* His hair looked really good and his toes, eye-makeup, and bright pink undies were teh awesome. :D ...And dancing to "Hollaback Girl" *gigglesnortgiggle*

And, to all those people out there that think Miyavi is just a pretty boy, I urge you to watch the videos for "Are You Ready To ROCK" and "Selfish Love". You have to admit, the man isn't just looks. >=O

( Guitar Slapping Goodness xD )

Get to know yourself better

Your view on yourself:
Other people find you very interesting, but you are really hiding your true self. Your friends love you because you are a good listener. They'll probably still love you if you learn to be yourself with them.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:
You are not looking merely for a girl/boyfriend - you are looking for your life partner. Perhaps you should be more open-minded about who you spend time with. The person you are looking for might hide their charm under their exterior.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:
You are ready to commit as soon as you meet the right person. And you believe you will pretty much know as soon as you might that person.

The seriousness of your love:
You like to flirt and behave seductively. The opposite sex finds this very attractive, and that's why you'll always have admirers hanging off your arms. But how serious are you about choosing someone to be in a relationship with?

Your views on education:
Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can.

The right job for you:
You're a practical person and will choose a secure job with a steady income. Knowing what you like to do is important. Find a regular job doing just that and you'll be set for life.

How do you view success:
You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:
You are afraid of having no one to rely on in times of trouble. You don't ever want to be unable to take care of yourself. Independence is important to you.

Who is your true self:
You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

Take the quiz here.

Video Gaming News
Dear Blue Dragon...I'm SO sorry I mistook the February cover of Game Informer for Pokemon. The great big blue dragon on the silver cover got me. I was like, Pokemon WTF!? And then I was like, what's the Dragon Quest dude doing on the bottom!? And then, like, several minutes later, I realized it wasn't Pokemon. I'm so ashamed. T_T

( You see this Blue Dragon? It's NOT a Pokemon! :O )

XBox 360, PS3, Wii
You know, I never thought I'd hear myself say this (well, ok, I slightly predicted it for the 360), but I REALLY want an XBox 360! That Gamerscore thing sounds so addictive, it's looking to have a wider library than the previous system (i.e., games beyond shooters and sports), and the ability to record tv programs in the future! :D

As for the PS3, I know I'm going to get one in...the...future...hmmm. I know I definately will, but right now, the games are looking pretty bleak. The only game that's coming out any time soon that I want to play is Heavenly Sword, which is supposed to be pretty similar to God of War.

The Wii. Why haven't I played one yet? What's wrong with me? *SOB* It looks like so much fun, I really want one. It definately has the best selection of games right now, too. I totally need to get my hands on either one of the Rabbids (of the Rayman variety :D) tshirts or figures, 'cause they're awesome looking. And Elebits looks entertaining, and ZELDA! And, and, the Wii Sports, and the whole Mii thing, and, and, Super Smash Bro Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy....*SOB* x a million! >.>; *sigh*

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Naruto Shippuden
Ok, so this Shippuden stuff? It's totally AWESOME! Thursdays need to come faster. T_T Naruto and Sakura were so great, and the look on Kakashi's face when Sakura did that thing! BWAHAHAHA! It's normal to see it on Naruto, but on Kakashi? Oh man, I totally need to find/make an icon of that :D I hate to push Gaara aside, but I really wanna see the end of the bell fight :)

GTO-Related News
A fansub group finally picked up Shounen Junai Gumi, a prequel to GTO. I've read some of the manga, but I'm thrilled that the anime is finally being subbed! XDDD

You see, all along, I've been under this impression that my very first anime series was Dragonball Z/Sailor Moon, a la Cartoon Network, but apparently, I WAS WRONG!

I got this insane notion to wikipedia (Yeah, you don't say "I'll go Google it" anymore, now it's "I'll go Wikipedia it") anime genres and started reading under the subtitle of 'Early anime in the United States'. Well, it mentioned a show called "Adventures of Little Koala" that aired on Nickelodeon, back in the day. So I hopped on over to that link, and wanted screenshots, so I Googled (yes, it's 'google' for images) the title and came across this website with an article entitled, Noozles vs. The Little Koala.

Now, I do remember reading about the Noozles somewhere else, but having come across TWO koala shows, I was a little iffy about which one I was remembering from my childhood. I've come to the conclusion that the show I used to watch, (along with Eureka's Castle [did you know that show was written by that horror writer, R.L. Stine?], Heathcliff, Ren & Stimpy [my mom was horrified that my dad would sit down and watch that with me...being a young child, and all], Captain Planet, Care Bears, etc), was the Noozles!

Yes, Noozles aka The Wonderous Koala Blinky was my very first anime, apparently. It originally aired on Fuji TV in 1984 as Fushigi na Koara Burinkī or Brinky and Printy.

"It depicts the adventures of a 12-year old girl named Sandy and her koala friends, Blinky and Pinky, who are from the extradimensional realm of Koala-Wala Land."

In case anybody was wondering, I was originally trying to decide whether to tag some anime series as 'music' or just leave it as part of 'sports/hobby'. I suppose La Corda d'Oro could be left as 'sports/hobby', but what do I put Nitaboh under? It's about shamisen playing, a 3-stringed musical instrument. It just feels weird to label it as 'sports/hobby.' *sigh*

Note: I'm happy that I can now say that my first anime was NOT DBZ/Sailor Moon, but a children's show called 'Noozles'. :D

Random Bits
I remember when FFXII first came out in Japan and my roommate, Dave, was playing it. He compared the storyline to Star Wars and apparently IGN agrees.

Nothing else was on tv, so I flipped it on G4....I remember why I never watch this channel..the hosts are damn morons, and I disagree with most of their reviews. But, I do like it when they just show preview after preview of games. One that caught my eye was Dawn of Mana, aka Seiken Densetsu IV. I remember reading about it back when they did the Hand-On thing at TGS. IGN may sound a bit iffy about it now, but the video looks awesome. :)

On an interesting note, Team Ico is looking for PS3 developers. In case you don't know, Team Ico refers to the production teams who made Ico and Shadow of the Colossus for PS2. I don't wanna become a developer...obviously, but it's exciting because this hopefully means we'll be looking at a similar game for the PS3! It makes me all happy inside, even though I never got around to beating either game. ^_^;

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Music News
For some musical news...AUSTRALIA IS DAMN LUCKY!!! They apparently have this FABULOUS orchestra that plays all these video game pieces and have become so well known that these six guests will be making appearances at the concerts, doing signings and meet and greets FOR NO EXTRA CHARGE: "Hitoshi Sakimoto, composer of the Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy Tactics scores, Yasunori Mitsuda, composer of the Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross scores, Junichi Nakatsuru, composer for the Soul Calibur series and Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, Masaru Shiina, composer of the Tales of Legendia and Tekken: Dark Resurrection scores, Yoko Shimomura, composer for the Kingdom Hearts series and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and Ko Ohtani, the composer of the Shadow of the Colossus score."

You cannot tell me that those guests do not make up a FABULOUS line up!
Not only the great line up, but apparently they've recorded some music for the new anime series, Romeo X Juliet by Studio Gonzo. Don't know who Studio Gonzo is? They're the studio behind series like Samurai 7, GANTZ, Real Bout High School, Black Cat, Gankutsuou, Trinity Blood, Chrono Crusade, Peacemaker Kurogane, etc etc (just to name a few :D)!!! The score was written by Hitoshi Sakimoto of FFXII and FF Tactics! Apparently they play a couple times a year, and it says they've performed "One Winged Angel" six times in Sydney alone. Not just FF music, it lists them playing pieces from "Shadow of the Colossus, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Kingdom Hearts 2, Final Fantasy: Advent Children, World of Warcraft, Katamari Damacy and Chrono Cross to name a few." Damn, I'd LOVE to hear some Advent Children music live. :D

Anybody subscribe to IGN Insider? I'd love to get my hands on this one download. Apparently, Yasunori Mitsuda made a new arrangement for them of "Radical Dreamers" from Chrono Cross. "The original was for a single guitar and voice, but when Mitsuda came out for "Passion" - a series of concerts Eminence performed in December 2006, he rearranged it for violin and double dubbed guitar, and they recorded it, with Hiroaki Yura on violin and Zane Banks on guitar."

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Games I Need to Finish/Start
¤ Seeing this Top Ten List reminds me that I really want to someday beat Skies of Arcadia.
¤ I'm at the very end of Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King.
¤ I don't mind taking a break in Final Fantasy XII, for now, but there's a DS sequel-type game coming out, so I need to get my butt in gear.
¤ I'm ashamed to say that I haven't even popped Dirge of Cerberus in my PS2 yet.
¤ Same thing of Tales of the Abyss. D:
¤ I started Shadow of the Colossus in Seattle, so I went and bought myself a copy, but I haven't even taken the shrink wrap off. >.>
¤ I swear that someday, SOMEDAY, I will beat Chrono Cross!
¤ Even if Harvest Moon: Magical Melody looks like a dinky game, it's gone back to the FANTASTIC formula of Harvest Moon: Back to Nature. I love it and I need to play more. :)
¤ Another game that people tend to look down upon is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. Paper Mario...*sigh* It makes me all happy inside. XD
¤ I'd very much like to continue Atelier Iris 2 ~The Azoth of Destiny~. I love this series and I wish the previous games in the series got released in the US. ;_;
¤ I should have Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia waiting for me in VA...that game may take precedence over all the others! :O
¤ I think that more people need to play Growlanser Generations. Great games, I'm telling ya.
¤ I'd very much like to dig up my copy of Space Station Silicon Valley for the N64. I can only pray that I didn't sell it. ;_;
¤ And, I would LOVE to get my hands on a copy of Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. It holds a special place in my heart. :D I'm very sad that the DS Goemon doesn't look to be coming out to the US at all. ;_;

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I'm sure there's more I'm missing, but, er, World of Warcraft has made me get extremely behind in my gaming. T___T

I've got my favorites picked out for American Idol now. :D

Anyway...afterwards, we decided not to watch Bones until daylight because the show can be kinda gruesome sometimes and I'm a wimp. So...we started watching The People's Court because Karen loves those court shows but...it was so creepy! This guy was suing this special effects guy for making a bad model...and the model was supposed to be of a dead German Shepard.

The film was about alcoholic mothers, er, and how this policeman finds this dead dog on the side of the road and makes it his partner. Yeah, that's right. He makes a dead dog his partner and it showed video footage of the guy carrying the dead dog around on his bike. And at some point later in the movie, a person spontaneously combusts. Oh, and this movie was made by an art therapist.

........

Bah, if this post doesn't make any sense, it's because I'm so creeped out right now. I avoided Bones and got this! ;_;

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I got stamped as Kaoru...again! But it's a different Kaoru, of course. :D

Yay~! ♥

Yay! I seem to be on a graphics blitz. My first batch of icons, EVAR!

[01] x Shikamaru (Naruto)
[13] x Miyavi

♥ Save to your own server.
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♥ The textless icon is not a base.
♥ Credit back to me :)

( Look at me! )

This is my first attempt at making a banner. I think it turned out ok. >.>

Click the banner to see the full sized version.

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Brushes credit: Flourish by Shiranui at DeviantArt



<a href="http://killermangos.livejournal.com/"><img src="http://i69.photobucket.com/albums/i63/killermangos/Photoshop/MiyaviHatLove.png" border="0"></a>

Because I'm lame and I hear that these things work. >.>

http://premiumipods.freepay.com/?r=35995895

I want a free ipod! Go to that link and sign up and fill out crap. Please? T_T