Well, I didn't really go away or anything like that..
I was just on a 2-month hiatus..
Or just really bad at keeping blogs updated on regular basis..?
If you answered the latter.. Ding-ding-ding! Bingo! You got it!
-sigh- I'm just plain horrible at doing anything at a regular basis..
Well, (whoa, fast recovery) during the 2 months I wasn't updating anything, I was constantly reading BL manga.. and not BL as in just shounen-ai, I mean, yaoi. Yes, I have been self-proclaiming to be a new yaoi fangirl.. and it already took the next level: almost nosebleeding at such explicit, yet really hot scenes.
I've read quite a lot of titles for that 2 months I was away from myanimelist.net. I recommend a lot of Fujisaki Kou-sensei's BL manga, especially the 8-volume series (it's actually more like 10-volume series, with "Aikata" and "Playboy Amour" included). I actually found the series pretty strange, since it's actually 8 (again, more like 10) books, with different title each. Each volume's title is as follows (I will put both Japanese and English titles):
1.) Happy Yarou Wedding (Homosexual Happy Wedding)
2.) Utsukushiki Kemonotachi (Beautiful Beast)
3.) Virgin Love
4.) Toriko ni Natta Kemono (Crazy for You)
5.) Junai no Seinen (The Young Person's Pure Love)
6.) Kemono wa ai de Iyasareru (Smooth over His Hurt Feeling)
7.) Playboy Amour
8.) Oboreru Kemono no Koibito
9.) Men's Love
10.) Aikata
I highly recommend these manga of Fujisaki Kou-sensei's, especially if you want to see a lot of action - with DETAILED art! I hate those BL manga that hardly show anything. I mean, it's a yaoi manga, so better show a lot, right? Ugh, seems some mangakas don't understand. I mean, who wants to read a censored yaoi manga? These are one of the problems of a yaoi fangirl. Anyway, these manga showcase 4 lovable couples (seme on left; uke on right): Toudou Akira X Tsuzaki Yuuhi for Homosexual Happy Wedding; Saijou Chiharu X Toudou Kazuki for Utsukushiki Kemonotachi, Toriko ni Natta Kemono, Kemono wa ai de Iyasareru, Oboreru Kemono no Koibito; Daigou Mikihisa X Kirishima Kaoru for Virgin Love, Junai no Seinen, Men's Love; Ian Evans X Sanada Manabu for Playboy Amour; and finally, Jin Kyotaro X Saiki Jun for Aikata. I also really like how Fujisaki-sensei does cross-overs in ALL of them! I loooooooooove cross-overs so much, that the series would be in a higher regard in my opinion. My favourite couple would be the Daigou X Kaoru pair. I just love tsunderes and submissive partners!! And Daigou is a hottie - no, a perfect kind of man, with perfectly chiseled body, gorgeous face, and an enticing sex appeal! -fangirl nosebleed- I want one of those too!! I love how Kaoru is my definition of tsundere - a person who is desperately trying to protect himself/herself that he/she doesn't get attached to anyone, and is highly vulnerable (emotionally) despite the tough shell. I enjoyed them very much because even though each live up to their own role as seme and uke perfectly, it's like they're not satisfied at just playing their roles - they play each other's too (Kaoru becomes the upper hand at times). I like that, because I think that's more realistic and it doesn't make the uke seem completely useless (like a CERTAIN FUCKIN UKE in the name of GIOU YUKI.. grrrrrr). Anyway, they're both great characters, and Daigou is a character you can easily love. Oh, and there is also an extra, called "Romance no Kaori/The Scent of Romance" and it features the Chiharu X Kazuki couple.
Uh, I forgot to say that you should be cautious of reading my blogs.. I can be very descriptive and lengthy, especially when I'm really passionate about what I'm talking about. I'm using the last entry at the last blog as an example, the one about Uraboku.. I was really disappointed, so I ended up ranting quite a lot.
Aside from reading all that (about twice each already), I've read other works of Fujisaki-sensei's too, like King & Prince, Aishi no Sweet Voice, Konna Hazu ja Nakatta no ni (this one's pretty interesting), From 701 Goushitsu (this one's good too).. basically every title of Fujisaki-sensei's on Mangafox.com with the exception of Utsukushiki Kemonotachi and Toriko ni Natta Kemono (mangafox doesn't have them; mangahere.com does).
I've read quite a few of Minami Haruka-sensei's works too, but I didn't really like how her ukes are so girlish. They're interesting, but it's like it's been written just for the sake of writing a story, and not to tell a story. There's a difference to that. To tell a story (literature-wise) means there's a lot more depth and meaning to it, than as to just writing one. This is what I always have in my head whenever I write my stories. As a writer, I don't just want to write stories, I want to be able to tell people stories and get good responses back. But, I guess they're not that bad.
Here are the other works that I've read:
Kusaka Takaaki
- aisareru hito e tsugu
- kagerou no mori
- karamete de kudoite
- kimi ni sachi are!
- naturalist no kare
- orangenia na hibi
- pochi no shiawase
(a few cross-overs going on between chapters too, like Mikami showing up in another)
Shungiku Nakamura
- Junjou Romantica
- Sekaiichi Hatsukoi
- Junjou Mistake
- tsuki wa yamiyo ni kakuru ga gotoku (I like the extra, Castilla, better than the main story)
Kannagi Satoru
- only the ring finger knows
Takaku Shouko
- secret love of 17 years old
- and the rose-coloured days
Gokurakuin Sakurako
- the exploration of adulthood
Maruya Kae
- koi wa keiyaku no atode
- onozomi no mama ni
Tohjou Asami
- love prism (very graphic yaoi; incomplete due to mangaka's passing)
I may have forgotten to list a few, but these are all the ones I've entered in my manga list recently, and I've also read a few non-yaoi stories.. but I won't go into the topic any further as I don't really think it's that important.
I felt a little nostalgic a few days ago, and decided to rewatch some anime (Gakuen Alice and Special A) because I wanted to notice Miyano Mamoru's voice as Nodacchi in Gakuen Alice, and to be in love with Takishima Kei in Special A all over again. Fukuyama Jun, being Kei's voice actor, is just simply amazing. He's voiced Grell Sutcliff (Kuroshitsuji), Shimizu Keiichi (La Corda d'Oro), Tanabe Jirou (Hyouka), Aidou Hanabusa (Vampire Knight), Watanuki Kimihiro (Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle), Murasame Tsukumo (UraBoku) <- the only reason why I tolerated watching this show until the end. Right now, I'm watching Gakuen Heaven, which features Fukuyama Jun as Itou Keita, who is a typical and normal teenager with no redeeming special qualities, gets admitted into Bell Liberty School or BL Academy (fufufufufufu XD). The voice cast (the characters who are close to Keita) is as follows:
Fukuyama Jun as Itou Keita
Sakurai Takahiro as Endo Kazuki
Nojima Hirofumi as Iwai Takuto
Morikawa Toshiyuki as Nakajima Hideaki
Miki Shinichiro as Naruse Yukihiko
Konishi Katsuyuki as Niwa Tetsuya
Kamiya Hiroshi as Saionji Kaoru
Tsuboi Tomohiro as Shichijou Omi
Okiayu Ryotaro as Shinomiya Koji
Suzumura Kenichi as Taki Shunsuke
Kawakami Tomoko as Umino Satoshi
This anime is categorized as shounen-ai and romance as its main genres.. or so it says. Not a lot of shounen-ai action, aside from hugs that cannot be considered as friendly, and the kiss at the very last episode, let alone romance. I suppose the whole thing about Endo keeping his promise and protecting Keita can pass off as romance, but that's it. A lot of characters are introduced, so it was even more interesting, but they are under developed. I suppose it's because it only ran for half a season, but I've come to know that the anime only focused on 1 possible ending - Gakuen Heaven - Calling You as they named it. Being a PS2 dating sims kind of game, it has more than 1 ending, and they turned it into manga, anime, and drama CD. Such a thing made to a game, it might be interesting. I'll give them all a read later, but I'm most looking forward to the ending with Niwa-san (Konishi Katsuyuki). While I was watching this anime, I was expressing through various actions how the voice actors of the characters of Keita and Kazuki are mis-casted (I don't really know if it's a word, but I just mean that they are assigned with the wrong voice actors), Fukuyama Jun and Sakurai Takahiro, respectively. I think the roles should be switched - Sakurai-san as Keita (I think it works out if he were to act like he did with Misaki in JR) and Fukuyama-san as Kazuki (he can sound like Murasame in UraBoku, or Hanabusa in VK). While Sakurai-san used the same pitch as he did for Misaki (which, for me, was a little unsatisfactory, since I think he could have sounded like Luka Crosszeria in UraBoku), Fukuyama-san amazed me. He used a different tone from all of the characters he's voiced that I've seen before, and it fit perfectly, so I was okay with that. He really is amazing.
In the end of every Gakuen Heaven episode (except episode 13), there is a omake called Hamu-Hamu Heaven, and it's about the characters in hamster form talking about something that relates to the characters involved. I thought it was really cute, and I find Niwa-san (Konishi Katsuyuki) the cutest!
Back-tracking a bit, I also rewatched Kamisama Hajimemashita. Though I haven't seen it in long time, I still had the same reaction as when I first watched it. I finished, and lamented how it only had 13 episodes. I WANT A SEQUEL FOR THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS! I also can't read the manga now, since it's updating very slowly, and I've decided to wait for it to finish before starting it (I dislike waiting for ongoing manga series). From the looks of it, Suzuki Julietta-san won't finish KH very soon.
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