AMV Medley!

August 14, 2007 by Yumeka 1 Comment

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I’m not really a huge fan of AMVs – I only like them when they’re exceptional, either really funny or really well made, and I don’t have any interest in watching mediocre AMVs. Over the years, through Anime Music Videos.org and brief viewings at cons, I’ve managed to find only a handful I thought were really worthy. But recently I’ve been in an “AMV mood” and felt like watching some of my favorites again and sharing them here on the blog (luckily they all seem to be available on YouTube too). So here are 6 of my all time favorite AMVs. Read on, and let me know if you think they’re as good as I do…

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Posted in Images, Videos, & Music

Inuyasha ch. 515 – 517 review

August 14, 2007 by Yumeka 8 Comments

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*images courtesy of MakiMaki and Freelance-Manga*Volume 52, chapter 515 Borrowed Body, chapter 516 Magatsuhi, chapter 517 Magatsuhi’s Main Body

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Posted in Inuyasha

The end of Death Note – where does the evil truly lie?

August 9, 2007 by Yumeka 66 Comments

I’m kind of late in writing my thoughts on the end of Death Note…I know everyone’s blogged about it already and even though my thoughts about the series haven’t changed very much since my halfway mark review of it, I just had to give my personal input about the ending of this amazing series…

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya novels and timeline complete!

August 4, 2007 by Yumeka 10 Comments

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I finally read through all of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya light novels. I have to say, they’re excellent, and the dedicated translation work of Baka-Tsuki is great too. I also updated “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Chronological Timeline of Events” that I wrote a while back, complete with short summaries of later events that haven’t happened in the anime. Volume 9 was really exciting, though I was a bit confused about the two alternate scenarios (anyone know what that’s about? ~_^) Anyway, I’m eagerly anticipating Volume 10 as well as the new anime season. Once the new season airs, I’ll record the appropriate episode numbers on my timeline. And once again, if anyone want so add anything or point out any errors in my timeline, please let me know =)

UPDATE: A 2010 revised version of the timeline is now available here

Posted in Haruhi Suzumiya

Is anime deep or just entertainment (or both)?

August 3, 2007 by Yumeka 4 Comments

Wolf's Rain
Since this interesting topic has come up on Anime Nano, I felt like putting my thoughts in too. The debate of whether “anime is deep or just entertainment” is a complex one. What is “deep” and what is “entertaining” can have different meanings to different people. But from what I’ve seen, and from what most people would define as “deep” and “entertaining,” I believe that some anime try to evoke a sense of depth in their audience while some are pretty much only focused on the entertainment factor. The term “anime” covers too wide a range of genres, stories, and perspectives to have just one adjective (“deep” or “entertaining” in this case) to describe the entire entity. It’s like saying “movies are deep/entertaining” or “books are deep/entertaining”; the word encompasses too many themes to narrow it down to such a broad description. There are so many different anime series, saying that “anime” in general is such and such is just too vague…

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Posted in Editorials and Ramblings

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, novels and timeline

July 27, 2007 by Yumeka 26 Comments

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I watched all the episodes of the ever popular The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya almost a year ago. After going through the series the first time (I watched the fansubs in the original TV broadcast order by the way), I liked it a lot but I don’t think I loved it. Surprisingly, almost a year later, I got a sudden new interest in the series, probably mostly due to my 4 day attendance at Anime Expo this year. TMoHS was everywhere at AX, not just the autograph session and concert, but all over the shops as well. After getting a full dose of Haruhi-ism while I was there, I decided to watch the series a second time. Turns out I loved it more than I did the first time (I should’ve known that all good anime series’ should be watched at least twice to be fully appreciated). I then decided to try and find translations of the light novels. Luckily, thanks to the dedication of Baka-Tsuki, finding them wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought. And now that I’ve read the majority of them, I have an even greater appreciation for the series…

UPDATE: A 2010 revised version of the timeline is now available here

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Posted in Anime Reviews, Haruhi Suzumiya

Pokemon Battle Revolution tournament at Game Stop!

July 22, 2007 by Yumeka 7 Comments

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Yesterday I attended the Pokemon Battle Revolution tournament that was being held by Game Stop stores across the USA. It seemed a bit disorganized at first…apparently all Game Stops were supposed to be having it, but two of the three closest to me did not have it (for ridiculous reasons, like not being able to get the key to their Wiis). I attended the one in Canoga Park, California, located in the Topanga mall. Although I didn’t win, it was still fun. It’s been years since I went to a Pokemon tournament so it’s nice to see that there are still a lot of dedicated Poke-fans like me ^^

Blood+: the halfway mark review

July 20, 2007 by Yumeka 6 Comments

Blood+
I started watching Blood+ back in March, when it began airing on Adult Swim. After watching the first few episodes dubbed (and writing a post about my initial impressions of the series) I decided to download the fansubs so I could see the Japanese version and get through the episodes faster. And now, after watching about half the series (26 out of 50 episodes), I have to say that’s it’s definitely one of the better series’ to come out in recent years…

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Posted in Anime Reviews

Inuyasha ch. 512 – 514 review

July 19, 2007 by Yumeka 2 Comments

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*images courtesy of MakiMaki*Volume 52, chapter 512 The Right Wish, chapter 513 The Jewel’s Dark Will, chapter 514 Crisis

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Posted in Inuyasha

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai eps 1 to 2 review

July 15, 2007 by Yumeka Leave a Comment

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The second series of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni finally begins! It’s been over 9 months since I finished watching the first series so my memories of some of the details are a bit foggy, but I remember the main events and gist of the story well enough. What started off as a seemingly average anime with stereotypical characters quickly turned into one of the most complex, intricate, and suspenseful horror/mystery series’ I’ve ever seen. The original Higurashi series won me over after the first few episodes, and although Higurashi Kai is starting off a little slow, I’m sure more suspense and mystery aren’t far behind…

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Posted in Anime First Impressions