lucathia

Some manga I bought over the past few months (not all pictured...uh, need to find the rest). I also need to find room for everything. :') I have other miscellaneous stuff I bought over 2018 that I'll be organizing over the next few days.


Zero got his own spinoff. :'D Also that spinoff for those criminals (always pictured as a silhouette) from Detective Conan is pretty funny. Now they will be known as Hanzawa-san, hahaha. I also picked up Pinpon Rush by Minami Maki, since I did enjoy Seiyuu Ka except for the ending. Though this series ended pretty early so it might not be all that developed. Kind of curious to see La Corda d'Oro return with a college story. It's been so many years. :') (I feel like a lot of old series are returning with continuations...) Akatsuki no Yona fanbook! Happy to see that it's larger than normal manga. I finally bought the last two volumes of Usotsuki no Lily. I liked it a lot in the beginning (especially the humor) but didn't care for some of the stuff near the middle. But I did enjoy her next series, Kamisama no Ekohiiki. Might be time for a reread to get the most out of the ending. I also picked up volume 1 of the pocket edition of Kara no Teikoku, to go along with v2 and 3. Still one of my favorite series. Great to complete my Japanese collection of it some more (I already have it in Chinese and English).

Also got two guidebooks for Fire Emblem Cipher since I've been curious about those cipher cards. Since it's hard to buy the actual cards, I thought an artbook or guidebook would be nice since I'm not actually going to play the card game. I just want the cards. The artbooks are super limited though... so guidebooks it is for now. I picked up volume 3 and 5 because they have some Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn stuff in them.

( some pics of the guidebooks )

The never-ending saga.


So, I saw that Conan is getting a super cute nendoroid (love the speech bubbles) and then I ended up pre-ordering that and looking up other Conan stuff. There's actually a Kaitou Kid figma! I feel like ever since the 20th anniversary of the Detective Conan anime, there's been a lot more merchandise. XD Well, I'm pretty happy about that~. No complaints here. I also ended up buying some other stuff too. The Prince of Tennis clips were too cute.

( close ups )

Stuff I bought from Anime Expo!


Day 1, I spent a good chunk of my time lining up for Yamamato Sayo and Kubo Mitsurou's autograph, while Days 2-3 were spent on trying to attend panels (and often failing). Day 4 was my shopping day! I wrote up some notes on the panels that I did get to attend, so I'll at least be posting about those.

Got myself another Arslan Senki poster. o/ My favorite one is the one shown on the box though. Haven't come across that one yet. Arslan looks gentler there~.

( close ups )

Fall anime I recently finished watching (or am almost done watching). Haha, 5 out of 7 of these series have exclamation points in the title.

Natsume Yuujinchou Go
I love that more Natsume is getting adapted, despite the gap between season 4 and this new season. It makes me hopeful that there will keep being more Natsume anime. Also, it's just really touching seeing how far Natsume has come since season 1. My favorite episode was the one with Touko. The Fujiwaras are just great~. Getting to see Natori's past was also a pleasant surprise. Sometimes though, the episodes with the ayakashi and fleeting human lives were a bit heavy for me, so I didn't watch the episodes right away.

Haikyuu!! Karasuno VS Shiratorizawa
Even though the entire season was focused on a single match, it was beautifully done and kept me on the edge of my seat. Also, Tsukki. ;asdkf;adf This season was so good for Tsukishima fans like me! He really got to shine. :D I'm not following the manga weekly, but I did end up reading ahead of the anime in the middle of this season. And then I went off looking for Tsukishima fic.

Yuri!!! on Ice
The first episode was beautifully animated. The skating in the rest of the series couldn't compare to the first episode, but each episode sure was packed with emotion, and I almost can't believe how many different skating routines we got to see. All the research that must've gone into creating this series! Although there were tons of characters, I found them all pretty memorable and likable. Even JJ grew on me, haha. My favorite was Yurio though~. Gotta love how he can skate so well while pissed off. XD I especially loved the flashback in the last episode, finally showing his POV of what happened in episode 1. So much happened in just 12 episodes. Also, I absolutely love Victor with long hair. XD

Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love Legend Star
I liked this season more than season 3, and I liked that we got more of the dancing in 2D, with the 3D looking a bit more natural than the previous season's. I didn't like Ren much before, but I gotta say, I loved his outfit this time. A suit plus a ponytail! The duet project was fun, though even after it, I don't feel I know the Heaven's members very well. But it did give more development to STARISH. And dang, Otoya's episodes were dark. Haruka has pretty much faded into the background, with only a cursory thought given to her in the 1st and last episodes. As for the final songs in the concert, I did actually like STARISH's the best. I liked Heaven's previous song better than their new one.

Magic-Kyun! Renaissance
Even after watching the entire series, I still don't get it. What exactly is a magical art, and what use does it have??? Is it just for showing how good you are at your art? More sparkles = you're really good at your chosen field? It doesn't seem worth it for Kohana to risk her life over it. The pacing of the series was weird. I thought the festival thing would be the final goal, but nah. And the staircase. All that buildup about the staircase, but they don't even really go on it. Weird little series. :'D Aoi was cool though. Voiced by KENN even~. Also, Minagawa Junko voiced Kohana's very handsome roommate Juri. XD

WWW.Working!!
This was so fast paced, with couples everywhere, but the pacing was actually pretty refreshing because things were definitely not dragged out. I really liked Adachi's character design. XD (It's the ponytail, hahaha) Higashida was a funny protagonist with how deadpan he was. The skits with Saiki (who doesn't know much Japanese) were great fun. Hosoya did such a great job with Saiki, and his English wasn't bad. :D Nagata was cute, and good for her for scolding both Higashida and Miyakoshi. XD

Hibike! Euphonium
I have one episode left of this, though episode 12 already covered the final performance. The animation is beautiful~. This season seems to be more about other people than Kumiko, yet she's in the middle of everything. What a meddler. XD;;; Or, what convenient timing she always has, to be in the middle of everything so we get to see what's happening. XD I didn't care much for Asuka in s1, but this season changed that, and I loved how Mamiko's story connected with hers. Also, Kumiko was such a cute kid, so excited about music, wanting to be just like her sister. Looking forward to the last episode.

Detective Conan: Episode One - Chiisaku Natta Meitantei
Conan special~. I definitely didn't feel we needed a remake of episode 1, but it was still kind of nice to see episode 1 with updated animation, and to have it fleshed out more. It's cool seeing more of Shinichi before he shrank, though he actually felt younger to me. XD I guess he kind of is, since he hasn't had to become more mature because of danger. It was cute seeing Shinichi and Ran interact so naturally without any worries. Also, it was really funny seeing Shinichi in those clothes again. No matter how many times we're shown the amusement park date, it's always that green jacket. By now, it must be a traumatizing outfit for him. I also still can't get over how bloody the roller coaster case is.

I watched 2 episodes of Trickster. Don't know if I'll continue. I still might give Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari, Sangatsu no Lion, Watashi ga Motete Dousunda, Girlish Number, and Fune wo Amu a watch.

Bought some stuff. ;) Some stuff from previous months not pictured.



( Legend of Sun Knight )

( No Hero )

( Half Prince and Kill No More )

( Key of the Sunken Moon )

( fishbones )

( Detective Conan, Akatsuki no Yona, and Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun )

( miscellaneous )

Purchased some stuff yesterday. Now to wait for them to come to me. *rubs hands gleefully* Bought myself the the 9th LSK bundle, the extra volume of the Human Doll Contract verse (Kiyutsuna pointed out that the golden haired guy is most likely Grisia klajsdfla;sdjf;a; I didn't even notice), 1/2 Prince manhua volume 14 (I couldn't tell who the characters on the cover were, but most likely Winter Triumph and Nan Gong Zui? ...You know what, I still have no clue), and more volumes of Detective Conan, haha... Only Japanese manga I buy the Taiwanese version of now, since my parents also read it! Otherwise, all my other manga, I usually buy in Japanese now.

I'm really curious about the Detective Conan light novels. I wonder if they're any good. :3; Tempting...

Parallelsfic works are live! \o\ I have a total of one fic in the collection this time, and I am not very anonymous, hahaha. I received a lovely Haikyuu fic~. Reveals are on the 22nd!

Next weekend is Japan Expo! It's the first time the convention will be held around here. I'm super excited because there are some great guests attending. I'm especially interested in Kozaki Yusuke who did character designs for Fire Emblem Awakening and Iwadare Noriyuki who did music for Ace Attorney, Lunar, and Grandia~. I'm so going to bust out my FE:A Henry cosplay and my Maya cosplay. XD; Hopefully the gatherings for the two series are on different days! Must bring some stuff to get signed~

I can almost see the end of the prologue! *_____* The prologue wasn't meant to be this long. OTL /dislikes the boring prologue. I mean, if the prologue turns out to be 10,000 words, then what does that leave the rest of the chapters...? I plan to wrap this novel up in 50k!

I didn't get much farther with advancing the story today. I just... expanded on scenes. I'm barely at the recommended word count at 5006 words! (I left the last sentence hanging, haha, because I'd passed 5000 words.)

I feel I'm getting a better feel for Tekatme's voice now. But I still need to get a better handle on the plot. And I haven't managed to describe Tekatme's hair at any point in the story yet. *pouts* This needs to be fixed because I find the two tufts of his hair that always fly up very adorable... XD;

-----
distractions for today:
- reading Detective Conan theories and reading recent chapters (ahhhh, mysteries are complicated. no way I can weave something this complicated...)

- reading Noblesse chapter 208, Skip Beat chapter 182, Hunter x Hunter 323 (it is getting exciting again, and yayyy, Killua's family!), Junai Labyrinth v5 (I think I might nominate this for Yuletide...*loves shoujo, which gets very little fic usually* I'm still undecided about what to nominate...)

- deck making (still need to finish)

Will be prioritizing colors_tcg stuff now (baaaacklog!), which might mean I won't be able to reach my Day 4 word count. We'll see.

Movies
I looked forward to watching this movie since I went to watch Captain America. I didn't think I'd like superhero movies this much? The movie didn't interest me before, but now it's caught my interest. ;) Anyway, I finally got around to watching Iron Man and quite enjoyed it. Looking forward to watching Iron Man 2, hopefully over the weekend!

Anime
Am also looking forward to catching up with some anime. I haven't been watching anything at all. Kind of just fell out of it. I've been trying to watch Natsume Yuujinchou San weekly, but I didn't manage to do that! When Kimi to Boku and Bakuman 2 start airing this fall though, I'm so following those as the episodes come out. Getting an anime really does make a series more popular, and gets the series more advertising too. Already, Kimi to Boku is getting more merchandise, it's been on the cover of G Fantasy quite a lot (which means I've been buying it every month...), has more color pages, etc! And I've been seeing more people talking about the series. I'm excited to see KtB get more popular because when I first got into the series, almost no one had heard about it before! It is lonely to like a series and have no one to talk about it with. kimitoboku_fan is also getting a bit more activity now~

(This is why I will be forever sad that 1/2 Prince and Legend of Sun Knight and Noblesse might never get an anime since they're not manga from Japan, though I do love that they're not from Japan. But if they did ever get an anime, the popularity boost!! I so wish these series would become more popular in English speaking circles.)

August was quite a Kaitou Kid month (that made me gleeful, the fact that he took over Conan episodes for 4 weeks) but I've only watched the first episode that aired (and took a whole slew of screencaps). I suddenly have this urge to watch Conan from the start, though that'd be a huge undertaking. XD; The new Prince of Tennis ovas must also be super squee-worthy, but I've yet to watch them. Watching them is very high priority for me though. ;)

Webtoons
Today I started reading a webtoon called Pinocchio about a ghost and a girl who can see him. I am in love with the art style. ♥ Also started reading The God of High School. I sense interesting fights up ahead. Sometimes I really wish I can read Korean too... I enjoy reading things in the original language. :3

Fanfiction in Chinese?
Does anyone know of any archive sites for fanfics in Chinese? I'm starving for Legend of Sun Knight fics especially, and I know that they have pretty big followings in Taiwan. I randomly surfed around in baidu and came upon a hilarious fic about rumors regarding Earth and Sun and how Earth was spreading rumors about Sun being gay, so Sun tells his platoon to make Earth appear gay, and somehow it all ends with people believing that Earth and Sun are gay together. Now I want to write some kind of rumor fic too! I think Storm would fit such a fic well...

I did search around Yu Wo's site and saw that quite a lot of people post their fanfics for her series there. It seems to me that many people post their fics in forums. I wonder if that's the practice most follow? Long, long time ago, I used to read Chinese Yu Yu Hakusho fics whenever I ran out of YYH fics from the English fandom to read, though I've forgotten the site I frequented back then. I wonder if it's even still around. It was a YYH specific site though. :3

This week is catch up with Detective Conan week for me. XD;

( Conan sure gets hugged a lot )


( Also, movie 14, I finally watched it. I squealed )