Shoujo Manga rants

OMG, the trailer to the upcoming Gokusen movie looks so freaking good. I mean, I am not really talking about the plot, since it's always the same anyway: problem class, troubled kids and Yankumi's shitty fighting skills. Buuuut this will be sooooo good (hopefully)!! Kamenashi Kazuya will be back to play a teacher this time and many of the old students from the last 3 seasons will be back too. The budget they had must have been insanely high because some of the actors who played students back then became pretty popular actors (i.e. Oguri Shun, Hayami Mokomichi, Koike Teppei...), plus they'll have 5 Johnny's Jimusho guys in it too. Akanishi Jin and MatsuJun won't be appearing though. In Akinishi's case, producers probably just wanted to avoid the cat fights between him and Kamenashi, I guess. I mean, it can't be because he has been too busy in the showbusiness lately...
I really hoped MatsuJun would be in it though. I mean everyone was waiting for him to reappear in a cameo role since season 2. He was the only student with the possible romantic connection to Yankumi but in the end, nothing happened.
Also to my pleasure, as you can see in the trailer, there will be Sawamura Ikki in the movie, who is one of the most charming men in Japanese entertainment industrie :))

If you read Japanese, you can visit the Gokusen movie wiki or the Official HP for cast and infos.

No real updates, as usual just a few announcments. I really want to, but for me posting means scanning and analyzing and I just dont have the time. Being a member of the working society now kinda sucks.... >_<

1. Boku no Hatsukoi kimi ni sasagu will be made into a movie sceduled to be in theaters in Japan from Oct. 24th 2009. I am happy to hear this because Boku no hatsukoi... is one of the best Manga I've ever read. Its really really good. It's this great, beautiful and at the same time tragic love story about two kids who love each other so much, but can't be together because they know that he is going to die soon. It ended last year and it was really such a great read. I don't see how they'll be able to squeeze the whole plot into 90 movie minutes, but we'll see. A couple of years ago, they made Boku no Imoto ni koi suru, another Aoki Kotomi Manga, into a movie and apparently it was pretty successful. If I remember correctly, they casted MatsuJun and I believe Eikura Nana into it, but I've never seen it because the Manga was just gross... >_<
Talking about the cast, it was announced that Mayu will be played by Inoue Mao (who played Tsukushi in Hana Yori Dango) and Takuma will be played by Okada Masaki (who played Sekime in the Hana Kimi drama).

2. Skip Beat was made into a game and released last week. It's only available for PS2 (for now??) and what I can say from looking at the HP, the character design looks sooooo good. It's so much better than in the Anime. It makes me want to play this game so much: http://5pb.jp/games/skipbeat/index.html

By the way, I haven't been posting about Skip Beat at all, but that's basically because the plot hasn't been very interesting lately (talking about the Box-R storyline, the newest chapters are getting fun again :)) Skip Beat really has it's ups and downs. There have been (few) times when I found myself only skipping (hehe! ^_~) through a chapter, but then suddenly, the plot gets incredibly good and I read it ten times in a row. That's why I always name Skip Beat as my favourite Manga of all times. It will always be my numer 1. Well, I'm sure I'll have lots to blog about again soon :)

3. Our beloved Kimi ni Todoke will be made into a DS game! Apparently since the Manga is on hiatus, with the upcoming Anime and all, the fans will have enough Kimi ni Todoke to spend their time until Shiina Karuho will be able to continue the Manga. The game is scheduled to be released "in 2009" whatever this means. I think it will come out at the end of summer and the Manga will be continued at the beginning of 2010.
The news about the game were announced in the newest issue of Betsuma. If you get to have a look at Betsuma, there are also first pictures of the games and this one looks nice too. I am looking forward to it and I believe the game has the potential to be good, but at the same time I am a little nervous because it could also be a fail like the Hana Yori Dango game (I mean seriously, what were they thinking....)
I just think it's great Kimi ni Todoke gets so much love. I now remember someone in the comments was saying a while back that a Kimi ni Todoke drama would be fun to watch. I still don't know if I could picture them making a Kimi ni Todoke Drama... usually when a Shoujo Manga gets made into a drama, they only pick the comedy ones. I really don't know....

What do you think? Would you like to see a Kimi ni Todoke drama?

Anyways... man, I miss Kimi ni Todoke so much!

Wow I am super lazy when it comes to writing in this blog. There's so much I want to write about and so little time. All I've been writing about lately was Kimi ni Todoke. Now that it's on Hiatus, I will try to post about all the Manga, I wanted to in a long time.

Anyway, until I start doing so, some more Kimi ni Todoke news ;) :

Kimi ni Todoke will be made into an Anime starting from fall 2009. As I am never tired to mention here, I am really no big fan of Anime (haha, I even stopped watching Skip Beat around ep 6) so I'm just whatever, but actually this is a pretty big deal. Betsuma Manga don't get turned into Anime very often, so this is a great 'honor' for the Mangaka and the series. I kinda saw it coming though with Shiina Karuho winning the Kodansha Manga Award last year and all the fuss they made about Kimi ni Todoke afterwars.
I really wonder if start in fall means pretty much the same time the Manga will continue or if it should be a substitute for it and we'll have to wait for a continuation of the Manga for a little longer.

I'm off to watch ep 16 of Boys Before Flowers now.

As usual way too late, I am here to summarize the latest chapter of Kimi ni Todoke. Now this is going to be one of the shorter summeries. In chapter 37, after all their misunderstandings and unexpressed feelings (at least from Sawako's side), Kazehaya kun goes to talk to Pin (sensei) and tells him he got turned down and Pin is like "I see" and then he suggests maybe shouldn't you give up?
And that's it. I swear. Chapter 37 is like 15 pages long >_< While I could live with a month of a not very long and exciting Kimi ni Todoke, the following makes me kinda sad...

NEWS: From Betsuma No 3 (which should be the one coming out on Feb. 15th) Shiina Karuo will take a break and give birth to her child. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's exciting news and the pregnant, hard-working japanese lady seriously needs a break, but I wish it was after things become good between Sawako and Kazehaya kun. Plus, actually I thought she's going to finish the series soon anyway. Anyway, the series will be back around summer... :((


I would like to take some time and rant about the Korean Hana Yori Dango drama and what in my opinion went wrong with it, but I need to study now >_<
Maybe in my next post and hopefully that won't be around the time Kimi ni Todoke will be back with a new chapter, but a little earlier ;)

Sorry for being so late with a summary of ch 35 and 36. Actually I've read both chapters a while ago, but I was really busy so I couldn't post and now it took me forever to find the scans again. Anyway, here we go...

So Kazehaya confessed to Sawako in front of his friends and Miura kun (I swear, the confession was even on the cover of Betsuma, apparently this is a big deal) and asks if thats so hard to believe. Sawako cries and says people will start misunderstanding and his friends actually start to take the confession as a "I like you" meaning "I don't hate you". Kazahaya kun asks again if it's so hard to believe and then walks away, Sawako follows him. She keeps crying and remembers that Miura kun warned her she doesn't want to be a bother to Kazehaya kun with her feelings. Kazehaya asks if the reason she cries is Miura kun and she says he just conforted her before. Kazehaya asks what about him and Sawako says she's sorry that she forces him to pay attention to her because of her tears and that she is a disturbance to him in general. Kazehaya answers to it: "So what Miura does is based on good will and what I do is out of burden?..... It's good will too" (this is really hard to translate into english. They misunderstand each other and Kazehaya thinks Sawako rather wants to open up to Miura kun than to Kazehaya kun, because that's more troublesome). He hides his face and says he really isn't who she thinks he is and repeats he likes her. He asks her if she likes him too and before she answers he says his "like" is different from hers. He slowly walks away and Sawako thinks she knew that all along (remember, she thinks that he just likes her as a friend but she likes him as a guy, so this would make their ways of "like" different too). She sort of breaks down crying.
Rumors about Kazehaya and Sawako and the confession are spreading soon. Kurumi hears it and Yano chan and Chizu are searching for Sawako. Kurumi talks to Miura kun and asks for Kazehaya kun and Sawako and he says he might have done something he shouldnt have. Meanwhile Sawako skips class and Pin sees her and she tells him shes been dumped, which Pin finds weird (because he knows Kazehaya kun likes Sawako). Yano chan and Chizu stop him from saying more. She tells them what happened and they say to her she shouldn't worry. In the end, they also didn't become her friends because they felt like they had to, but because they wanted to. Chizu gets mad at Sawako for always thinking she's a burden and because she's so slow and walks away. Yano tells Sawako at first they misunderstood her too, but then they saw her good parts and how cute she was and how she never gave up and that Sawako is no different from them or from Kazehaya kun. And Sawako should understand that about her too.
Kazehaya kun meets Sanada kun and tells him he was dumped and apparently he is a burden to her and being dumped hurts more than he thought. He says he never thought he would be so troubled that he almost wants to cry.
Later Sawako tells an upset Kurumi that she got dumped and Kurumi says she doesn't want to be compared to Sawako because Sawako didn't even fight for her love. She also calls her slow. Kurumi runs off furiously.

So far for ch 35 and 36. For those who are wondering why Yano chan or Chizu or Sanada kun don't already help them to get together and stop the misunderstandings, it was explained a couple of chapters ago that Kazehaya kun isn't a person who likes third people to interfere and HE wants to tell the person he likes about his feelings. So just a little more patience! I really want to know what Sawako is going to do now and how she's going to approach Kazehaya kun again.
BTW, I read somewhere before that this chapter was 'close to the climax', which basically means apparently the series is going to end soon. Its always sad to see one of your favourite Manga end, but I am happy it is coming to an end as long as it's still good.


On anoher note, the Korean drama version of Hana Yori Dango starts today. I seriously seriously can't wait to watch it, even though from the trailers I've seen so far, the acting is pretty horrible. It probably won't be nearly as good as the Japanese version and not even to mention the Taiwanese version, which was just overall awesome, but still I can't wait to watch because I have this ridiculous crush on Korean men. Never been so fond of Japanese guys but having a korean bf, I really tend to like koreans. So even though it ends up being a horrible drama, there's something to watch for me :)
Gotta wait a couple more days for the subs tho, because I speak like two words of korean XD

As most people might know, Skip Beat has been made into an Anime and as of now, the first two episodes are out already. They cover exactely the first two chapters of the Manga. I wonder when they will move on with the plot faster and how much of the Manga will be covered. What we know now is that the Sho PV shoot storyline will be covered, because we can see Kyouko as the angel in the opening, but I wonder as to how much the Dark Moon storyline will be in the Anime. It starts rather late in the Manga (around vol 10) and it's like the main storyline so far, so I hope they'll have it in the Manga and it will be well done.
As for the Anime itself, so far it was pretty good. Okay, honestly, I have only skipped through ep 1, because I have read the Manga so so so many times and it's very close to the Manga original. I liked it enough to watch ep 2 fully and besides Ren's character design at times, I enjoyed it a lot. I especially love the dialect they gave Sho, when Kyouko/ Kyouko's devils have visions of him ^_^
I also like the music, especially the ending is nice. It's J Rap and it reminds me a lot of Greeeen. I also love the video to it, it's so fitting :)

I also read the the newest chapter, 130, today. The newest story arche gets really good. Kyouko is shooting her new Box-R drama and the director wanted her to act out Mio, her bully role from Dark Moon, but Kyouko has a problem with it. She actually develops with the help of Ren her new personality as Natsu. She now portrais an attractive, very grown-up looking girl, like the type that everyone has respect for and easily can manipulate people. Now this puts Chiori, the aspiring co-actress, who actually has a real bad personality, into a bad light, because she acts too pure to be part of Natsu's bully group and the director tells her she has to change her acting in order to fit in. This of course makes her incredibly upset and in the last scene we see her putting up a face that says she'll get revenge. Probably not in a fair way in front of the camera.
Kyouko really was cool in this chapter, especially when she was in Natsu mode and ripped off one of her "friends" ribbon. Can't wait for ch 131 out in 2 weeks!

After not posting in weeks, I am dont really come back to write a huge post about Manga. I mean, I haven't even had the chance to read much Manga lately, because I am really really busy with school. I have so much to post about though, but today, I'll only write a little about Kimi ni Todoke ch 34 that I got to read a little earlier today. Let me just say: ***KOKUHAKU TIME*** ^_^

So we all know that lately Sawako and Kazehaya didn't really spend much time together. It started when Sawako couldn't give only Kazehaya chocolate for Valentines Day and Sawako then befriended Miura kun, which made Kazehaya jealous.
So in ch 34, Sawako and Miura kun are talking about Kazehaya kun and Miura kun tries to convince Sawako it's better to give up on Kazehaya kun, after all that has happened lately, it's just the best and he might not be so much into her anyway. He might even have a girl he likes after all and Sawako would only be in the way if she would be around him and tried to make thing right between them. This actually makes Sawako cry and not surprisingly, out comes Miura kun's soft side and he says she should go for other guys, and how about him? Kazehaya overhears it and goes between them and asks what Miura kun did to make Sawako cry. Sawako clears the mistake when three of Kazehaya kun's friends appear, who comment on the weird picture of a pissed-off Kazehaya kun, a crying Sawako and Miura kun. They make fun and say it looks like the two are compeeting over Sawako because they like her and Kazehaya says it's true and in an awkward way, he finally does what we've all been waiting for in a long time, he confesses to her. Now don't get me wrong, Kazehaya kun could never do anything awkward, because he's awesome, but it's a public confession and I tend to think of them as really awkward. ;))

I'm excited to see Sawako's reply and I also wonder if Kimi ni Todoke will be over soon or if there will be more once Sawako and Kazehaya kun get together.

The next chapter will be out in Betsuma on sale in mid-Septer, which will also have the last chapter of B.O.D.Y in it. It's always sad to read the last chapter of a long running Manga that you liked, but this series seriously needs to come to an end!

I really havent been updating in a while, but the main reason was Ive been in Japan and I dont use the internet much here. I will be here for another month and all I can say is Manga Manga Manga :) I`ve been reading a lot so far, even though I dont think Ive bought more than 15 books yet. Well I still have a lot of time left and my suitcase is heavy as hell already so well see. I am reading a lot of Manga magazines lately that I throw away right after reading. I read the final chapter of Koukou Debut and its kinda sad the series is over. It was not the greatest ending, but it was very Koukou debut like :) Fans of the Manga, dont worry, Haruna and Yoh are still together! ;)

Also a lot of the Manga I am reading have new volumes on sale now. No wonder actually, since the last time I bought Manga was in April or so, so basically every continuing series I am reading has a new volume out right now. So here some impressions:

-) Koko ni iru yo: I am continuing to read this series and I even don`t know why. I dont hate it but I think the plot is kinda stupid. The main girl who never had any friends was confessed to by the coolest guy in class and found new friends and still shes all about her two online friends. I also have friends online, but they could never measure up to friends in real life. So when the main girl gets all upset about Kuro Usagi saying goodbye to her online and wanting to find him, I got really annoyed by it.
I totally loooove the ＜a href=" http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%B3%E3%82%B3%E3%81%AB%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B%E3%82%88-3-%E8%AC%9B%E8%AB%87%E7%A4%BE%E3%82%B3%E3%83%9F%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8B%E3%82%88%E3%81%97-%E9%81%A0%E5%B1%B1-%E3%81%88%E3%81%BE/dp/4063641899/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217312941&sr=8-1" target="_bliank">cover of vol 3</a>. Its so... japanese :) I believe there are so many memories you create with your friends on the way home during your high school time.

SPOILER AHEAD!
I think the main reason why I am still reading this series is Teru. I`ve really grown to like him. Hes for a change not the second guy who falls in love with the main girl, hes more of a protector of the main girl and her boyfriend. I really like his personality. If I would have met him in highschool, I think he would have been a guy I would have become good friends with :) He`s Kuro Usagi by the way!

-) Kare wa Tomodachi: Wow, I hate Kotone even more now. She`s not only plain stupid and needs to go away, she`s also a stupid slut. I can really understand the way how Hiyoko feels and I am getting annoyed with Sasamoto, her boyfriend. Its really interesting how it turned out between the characters now and I cant wait to read vol 3. Kare wa Tomodachi is really one of the most interesting series I am reading right now.

-) Ive started reading Switch girl and its super hilarious. Its such a fun read and I like both, the main girl and the guy a lot. The only thing that bothers me is that if the drawings are not exaggerated and show Nika in her switch mode, the way the faces are drawn reminds me of Old Shoujo Manga. Like oooooold. Versaille no Bara-like old ^_^ Thank good there are a lot of exaggerated scenes ;)


Other Manga that got published lately> Hana Yori Dango 37, Skip Beat 19, Uwasa no Midori kun 8, Boku no Hatsukoi kimi ni sasagu 11 (and 12 being published soon too!) and Kimi ni Todoke 7. I will post some more about those when I find time :)

It's written in huuuuge letter across the cover of the newest Hana to Yume issue, from fall on, Skip Beat will be made into an Anime. I kinda saw it coming, after it said in the last issue that there would be big news coming up. I don't know, I don't really watch Anime, so I am definitely more excited about the Taiwanese Skip Beat drama, but I guess it's good news. I'm definitely going to watch it. I'm somehow really looking forward to hearing Sho sing :)

In other news, there will be a Koko wa Greenwood Drama. Most people don't know Koko wa Greenwood I guess, but for me it's huge news. It was a Hana to Yume Manga series that ended many, many, many years ago. I don't know, it looks to me like it's going an afternoon series and the cast looks kinda crap, but nevertheless, I am going to watch it. The series was so great, even though it's been many years I've read it, I never forgot about the plot and the characters. It was somehow part of my youth ^_^

Official Koko wa Greenwood HP

Thanks to a special fellow fan, I can finally read Kimi ni Todoke in Japanese. And yeah, I was wrong, Kazehaya didn't confess to Sawako, he only said to her he always thought he was the one guy in class closest to her and asked her if he was wrong, but she couldn't answer to it, that's why he left looking really down. So no real confession. I wonder how the Kazehaya x Sawako x Miura kun love triangle turn out from now on.
Oh and finally being able to read the most recent chapters in Japenese is just wonderful. The chapters when they do the Hatsumode are really really cute. Kazehaya is such a cute guy, he gave his luck to Sawako! ^__^ Well, that's because she's the woman of his many first times! ;) I know I'm not making any sense right now, hahaha....;))

Otherwise, I am into Hana Yori Dango again. I'm reading the Manga and watching the Taiwanese and Japanese drama all at the same time. Nothing beats the Manga but I realize once more that I actually appreciate the Taiwanese drama version waaaay more than the Japanese one. No matter how much you look at it, Meteor Garden is just an all-overly well made drama, while the Japanese version was just *entertaining*. Awww, Meteor Garden brings back such good memories. I was really into it many years ago and I had this crush on the guy that played Doumyouji and I remember how I fangirled over him with my friend and how we took pictures of F4 ads on the streets in China ^__^; I still think he looks damn fine. He is also the one who'll play Ren in the Taiwan version of Skip Beat (YAY!), so I am really looking forward to it. Makes me wonder, why is Taiwan always the first country to make popular Shoujo Manga into drama and not Japan?