Manga/Anime: Kuroko no Basket

If you do read manga, and if you havent pick this up, you should!
 Kuroko no Basket (Basket =Basketball in Japanese written in Katagana) is addictive!!

I honestly love this man. Okie, granted it's a shounen manga and it's all about basketball but it's damn addictive. Spent last 2 days reading the manga non stop because it was really hard to put down a good storyline.

If you like SlamDunk, I think you will like this though it's direction reminds me more of Prince of Tennis. Even a couple characters drawn reminded me somewhat of Prince of Tennis. Unless u are a die hard romance Shoujo manga reader only and doesnt care a hood about good storytelling, then this should interest you. It's also rather comical in some chapters that had been laughing quite a bit!

The story starts with a brand new high school Seirin with a brand new basketball team which is only 1 year old, and the seniors doing their recruitment drive. In comes the main character Kagami kun who is determined to be the No1 Basketball player in Japan. Then comes in the other lead character, a mysterious veteran player that no one seemed to "notice".

Apparently, in the middle school, there is one school that dominates the whole game throughout because it has 6 super talented and amazing prodigies players labelled as "Generation of Miracles". They have never lost, have super skills and amazing precision. However, people only rem the 5 players and the 6th was the phantom player and no one knows what he does or who he is.

So the story starts there where the phantom player is Kuroko Tetsuya, someone with so little presence that people always do not notice his existence and that was his skill in basketball. he acknowledges Kagami's burning passion and love for the game and made a pact with him to be his "shadow" and enable him to achieve his wish as No.1.

The chapters developed, about friendship, determination, and challenges they faced with each competition. One by one, Kagami and Kuroko starts to face his past teammates in competitions and that's the exciting part. There's no filler chapters, each week is filled with excitement one after another!

I'm reading up to chapter 140 and still suckered in. Reading pace gotten slower because for the last 4 chapters are no "subbed" and in Japanese so that took a bit longer to digest. However, it's so good that I really cannot just start at the cliff hanger!!

Personally, I like this even better than Prince of Tennis! I want to see how Kuroko developed his skills and grow! Luckily there isnt any major love scene in this series yet and please please stay that way so as not to detract from the focus, The Game!!!

Currently, they have adapted the manga into anime and it's into Ep 3. Those interested can watch the English subbed anime here.

http://anilinkz.com/kuroko-no-basket-episode-1

J-anime: Chihayafuru

After all the drama and movie bashing, you are probably wondering what the hell would interest me. Lol! The other anime which I rather like is "Chihayafuru" = ちはやふる. (http://www.ntv.co.jp/chihayafuru/)

It is about a highschool girl's drive and determination to see through her love for the game, and through her encouragement and attitude motivated a childhood friend to rekindle his love for the game again. A thoroughly enjoyable and meaningful anime that have you rooting for the characters. I am assuming there will be a love story happening somewhere later or at least they are hinting about it in the anime series. I have not read the manga so I totally have no idea how it will end. The voice of one of the lead guy Tachi character is actually done by Mamoru Miyano:)

The story is as below (reproduced based on wikipedia). 

Chihaya Ayase is a girl who has spent most of her life simply supporting her sister in her model career. That changes when she meets a boy named Arata Wataya, a talented karuta player. He thinks that Chihaya has a potential to become a great player. As Chihaya takes on a new dream of becoming Japan's best karuta player, she is soon separated from her karuta playing friends as they grow up. Now in high school, Chihaya still continues to play karuta in the hope that she will one day meet her friends again.

Kurata is a card game based on japanese poetry, at the same time it is physically challenging as it requires great body coordination and stamina in addition to wits.

Arrrgggghhhh!

OMG! OMG! OMG! I cannot believe the latest bleach release! How is it possible?!!!!

Bleach 416 Spoiler...

I cannot believe that Gin lost! I cannot believe that he is dying/ died being killed by Aizen! Crap, his hand was completely ripped off by Aizen! To think all these while, he has been pretending to follow Aizen to find the right moment to kill him, to fulfill a self promise that he made for the sake of Rangiku, to protect her from crying...all for nothing...I felt so sorry for him!

Crap! I have always like Gin and when he didnt try to kill Ichigo, I thought there was more to him than just the merciless follower who has fallen with Aizen. Darn! Ichigo please hurry! I cannot bear to see more death!

One manga stopping manga hosting...

I'm so sad today...because I found out that One Manga has been asked to stop hosting scanlations of all the mangas... I want to cry so badly! There goes the end of my reading of Naruto, Bleach and Skip Beat! It all boils down to greed and money!! the publishers blamed scanlation grooup for depriving them million of dollars.

Well listen up, I WON'T buy the damn manga anyway for long series like Naruto and Bleach. So even without the scanlations, you wont earn an extra penny and even worse, now I wont even buy the collectibles since I cannot read them anymore. Plus, where on earth do they expect me to keep all the books? I wish there is a manga collection in the library where people can loan the mangas! Guess I have to turn to those manga stores to borrow those comics now... such a bloody hassle since all the stores here only stock mandarin versions!

Why scanalations are forced to stop
An international coalition of Japanese and American-based manga publishers have joined together to combat what they call the “rampant and growing problem” of scanlations, the practice of posting scanned and translated editions of Japanese comics online without permission of the copyright holders. The group is threatening legal action against 30 scanlation sites.


The effort brings together the 36 member Japanese Digital Comic Association—which includes such major Japanese houses as Kodansha, Shogakukan and Shueisha—as well as manga publisher Square Enix, the Tuttle-Mori Agency and U.S.-based manga publishers Vertical Inc, Viz Media, Tokyopop and Yen Press, the manga/graphic novel imprint of the Hachette Book Group.

A spokesperson for the coalition said the effort shows that Japanese publishers—who license the majority of manga sold in the U.S.—are taking an aggressive interest in combating manga piracy outside of Japan as well as inside the country. The group charges that the former fan-driven practice of scanlating—begun in the 1970s to scan, translate and post manga online when it was difficult to find manga outside of Japan—has been transformed by “scanlation aggregators,” heavily trafficked, for-profit Web sites that host thousands of pirated manga editions and offer them for free to readers.

According to a spokesperson, these sites are among the most heavily trafficked sites on the web attracting millions of visits each month while earning advertising revenues and even soliciting donations and sometimes charging for memberships. The group also charges that pirated manga is now beginning to turn up on smartphones and other wireless devices through the use of apps developed “solely to link to and republish the content of scanlations sites.”


A spokesperson said that “we are left with no other alternative but to take aggressive action. It is our sincere hope that offending sites will take it upon themselves to immediately cease their activities. Where this is not the case, however, we will seek injunctive relief and statutory damages.” The group is also aggressively reporting violations to the “federal authorities, including the anti-piracy units of the Justice Department, local law enforcement agencies and FBI.” While the group has yet to file any lawsuits and has declined to name specific scanlators, sites such as MangaFox and OneManga have long been identified as major scanlation aggregators.


After several years of booming manga sales in the U.S. that drove the popularity of comics and graphic novels in the traditional book market, sales of manga in the U.S. have declined more than 30% from a high of $210 million in 2007 to $140 million in sales in 2009, according to pop culture news site ICv2.com. Many manga publishers and retailers who used to believe that scanlations actually attracted new readers, now blame the sales decline on the rise of giant for-profit scanlation sites that have allowed a new generation of fans to grow up reading manga for free online.

“Go back 2 years and track these sites and you’ll find an inverse relationship between the rise of traffic on these scanlation sites and the decline in U.S. manga sales,” said Kurt Hassler, publishing director of Yen Press and a former graphic novel and manga buyer for Borders Books and Music. Hassler points out that early fan-driven scanlation sites were aimed at making manga available overseas at a time when English translations of manga were rare. Indeed these fan scanlators would remove their online translations when the books were licensed for the English-language market.

That’s no longer the case, said Hassler. “These sites are run as businesses and include direct scans of licensed English-language manga editions. Some even include our copyright notices. We don’t want to have to do this but publishers are now focused on this problem.”

Manga: Chii's Sweet Home

This is not drama related but I caught on a very cute manga...and I mean CUTE! I am a dog lover but I am soo attracted to the little meow meow in this series...

It's coloured series "Chii's sweet home" - about a little kitten called Chii who was adopted by a family. The manga depicts the little small adventures this little kitty has... He is soooooo adorable..there is no other description apart from super super cute! If you are a cat lover, I think you can really relate to this and see your little pet with a different perspective henceforth. :)

It's a no brainer manga, but i love how the artist drew the kitty and protray its train of thought and emotions so aptly like a little child.

Read here

Manga : Shiawase kissa sanchoume, Loving it...

Everytime I log in I feel a sense of guilt... like I should be doing some summary and not "chit chatting" away by myself... I mean who on earth wants to know what I am doing right? oh well, indulge me:)

The reason for my apparent "laziness" is due to my current obsession with the manga "shiawase kissa sanchoume"/ 幸福喫茶3丁目 (read here) while waiting patiently for skip beat to get more exciting. Skip Beat Chapt 151 is out but it's back to Love Me section plot again... so the interesting bit starts next chap out on 5th feb. I wish they would just focus on Ren and Shou.....otherwise I will get bored....

Back to SkS....must have mentioned somewhere last year how I love this manga "SKS" for its cute drawing. The story isnt the common "Leading girl" acts stupid/helpless and boy tries to rescue her sort of shoujo romantic. No No...I wont like such a wimpy plot. Rather in here, the storyboard is simple in Uru search for happiness. Not the sort of relationship love, but more of the all encompassing love from friends to family sort. Uru is kinda innocently simple, cute, helpful warm hearted with incredible strength.

Uru decided to give her mum and her new marriage privacy and hence she chose to shift out and exert her own independence by working in a dessert cafe Café Bohneur. The 2 leading guys (Shindou - the guy who made the lovely dessert and the other ichirou who needs to be fed constantly or will fall asleep) are both cute in their own subtle ways (looking out for Uru).

I love their simple quirky friendship and their character development. Shindou is an abandoned child at 6yr by his mother and had been plagued by nitemare over it. He was adopted by his current foster father who owns the cafe and indirectly influenced shindou to be the excellent dessert cake patisserie. Outwardly looking unfriendly and unsociable to people who doesnt know him (and his constant thundering over a snoozing Ichirou) , Uru was able to slowly draw out his inner gentle and warmth with her cheerfulness. The other employee Ichirou is a very smart guy but has a weird "illness" , where he needs to be fed constantly at a regular interval or he will just fall (literally) asleep. So much so that he even had to retain a year because he slept too much.... As the story develops, we found out why Icihrou developed this "illness" at childhood. We also witness his emerging feelings for Uru and how his uncanny intuitive sense will see him "popping" up unexpectedly, thus foiling Shindou's foster ongoing plan to get Shindou and Uru together / date privately. There is no animousity between the 2 guys and we see when Shindou really needs comfort, Ichirou had no qualms in "loaning" Uru to console Shindou.

Other characters such as Ichirou's little 6yr old brother and sakura the little 6yr old sister of a "rival" Japanese confectionary store are also both adorable.


I find it hard to explain further what draws me. Maybe its the human dynamics that made it warm and fuzzy, maybe its all the funny expressions that had kept it going for me. I especially like the stickman drawings that are intermittenly inserted that makes me laugh...

I am now up to Vol 13 - chpt 70, with 2 more volume to completion but canx find them online yet even though the raw Jap manga is already completed. The story is at an exciting crux where another mysterious famous dessert franchise boss is "blackmailing" / "toying" with Uru simple trusting nature. Now that he discover's Shindou liking for Uru, what other mean tactics will he use to try to "destroy" Uru's happiness and the love and protection she is basking in? Also, I am keen to find out wht Shindou's mum abandon him, and who exactly is his foster father....

If you like the drawing of Skip Beat, I think u will love this as well.

I heard Tokyo Pop has finally recently licensed this series. I wonder if they will make an anime or a drama series out of this because I can see the potential in this. However, I doubt the drama will be as humourous as the manga itself because some expressions made by the stickman are just hard to duplicate with a real person....

Hapi Mari Chapter 7 is released!

Yeah!!! manga Fans, the new chapter 7 of Hapi Mari has been released by Aerandria..finally after such a long wait. I have something to read over the weekend now..Yipppeee!

Manga - Shiawase Kissa Sanchoume

Just been reading another manga which i thought was rather cute, or rather i like both of the lead male characters.

Shiawase Kissa Sanchoume is a light entertaining read. It doesnt have much story plot unlike skip beat but its definitely one of those that will make u grin at those cute scenes. Some scenes make me laugh at the loveable drawings.

I like to see in the end if there is a conclusion to the nice little blossoming friendship between the 3. I kinda like jirou the little brother too...as a side character.

Story synopsis

Takamura Uru takes her mother’s remarriage as an opportunity to strike out on her own and begin a part time job. Filled with the thought of “If only I could make someone happy…”, she begins working at Café Bohneur, a shop famous for cakes; but the employees, Ichirou-kun and Shindou-san, turn out to be incredibly unsociable. These two, though frightening at first glance, begin to change something inside of her. This is the start of a romance about Uru’s search for happiness.

manga read - Zettai Heiwa Daisakusen

just got started on a new manga series which i thought is quite cute and can be comical at times. the prince is of course the typical gorgeous guy...

it's about 2 countries at war but the opposing prince and princess decide to announce their engagement to bring about a cease fire. the rest of the story evolves on how the princess who initially hated the prince slowly comes to a realisation that she may really be falling for him. meanwhile, people who had profited from the war including the prince's brother are against the peace and trying to assassinate the prince to bring back war.

the story is not difficult to follow and not heavy at all. the princess is pretty cute and her reactions at times are quite funny. my only gripe to date, its a little too repeatitive for the first few pages of very chapter to remind the readers that she is suppose to hate him, but i hope to see that stopping soon once the readership increase i presume.

so for a lighthearted read, here's the new series, read here

Zettai Heiwa Daisakusen

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Shoujo

Manga: Hapi Mari

I started laughing when I saw page one of the most recent chapter 142 of Skip Beat. This is a great chapter and the valentine build up is getting more exciting with Shou and Ren discovering Kyoko's chocolate secret.. I had to laugh so much at her comical expressions throughout the chapter! Hee heeee. I simply cannot wait for them to decide and start on Season 2 of the animation...

Meanwhile, just started on a new manga romance series - Hapi Mari., scanlated by Aerandria. Honestly, Aerandria really pick the best projects and most of the series that they do are pretty nice.

As far, the first 4 chapters are out. Its about this O.L who had to pay off her clueless father's debt and in the end saved by her company president. They got married and so tha story revolves round the relationship build up between them. It's quite funny really these first chapters. She is soooo innocent that borders on impossible but well, its comic.:) The drawings are good, and as usual, pretty girl with goodlooking guy. It's probably another predictable plot but comic reading is to destress and be entertained, not to mention the drawing board for great drama series! heee hee. So for those interested in Manga, check this series out. It has a rating of 4.92 out of 5 to date.

Manga: The New Prince of Tennis

The new manga continuation series of "The New Prince of Tennis" is out. I was reading the first chapter and hmmm... I wonder who did the translation because its so vulgar. Its very "americanised" with all the "F" swearing in it, where the word is non existent in asian content. I dont understand why the person doing the translation couldnt use a more civilised language. Sigh... I stray from my main point.

I have watched Prince of Tennis animation about hmmm...about 7 years ago when my excolleague recommended it. It's quite funny because the group of us will be taking turn to download it and talking about it during lunch, or sometimes when I am too lazy to head out, lunch time would be anime watching time in my cubicle. My boss used to quite amused at me, laughing away madly by myself at the far corner of the corridor...tucked away at my little corner.... (^o^)V

P.O.T then was not fanciful artwork but I just found it entertaining. I didnt read the manga and so this new series will be my first time reading it. I am sure the next series of animation will be more poised than the old school artwork from before.

Looking forward to seeing how this 2nd installation will build up!

Read chapter one.

J-Music: Skip Beat Anime New Ending Theme (2)

If u have been following Skip Beat Anime, you would notice the new ending theme from Episode 20 onwards.

It's a new track 「永遠」(Eien) by Yusaku Kiyama, from his album 「Memorial 」

I found a link that has the album download. Check it here.

Meanwhile, I just LOVE how the anime is developing closely following the manga!! They are finally getting into the "DARK MOON" section...I simply cannot wait to see Kyoko acting her role!!! This is going to REAL GOOD! Just thinking about it is setting my pulse racing.....

永遠Eien - 木山裕策

Reading my manga...

So many things to read and watch today.. new chapter of Vampire Knight is out few days back but only got to read it today. Sigh, not much development there. It's so slow that I am losing interest at the rate it goes.

What absolutely made my day is that new chapter of Skip Beat is released today too!! Yiiippppppeeeeee! The manga episode is also starting on a new opening theme song. This series simply just get better and better! There is no words to describe it. How can anyone not fall in love with it yet? I personally think this is way better than Zettai Kareshi. This is one manga which I am currently loving both the drawn and animated version!!! After a year, I am still rooting for it and dying to see how the story will continue to unfold. The climax just keep piling on.

I'm not sure if I want to watch the Taiwan drama version of it though that is currently being shot now. Taiwan has a tendency to over exaggerate and kill the essence. I am dying for someone to decide to shoot the Japanese drama version of this..it would be sooo awesome if they do!!!

I started on a new Korean Manga called "The Queen's Knight". Initially I found the first 3 chapters averagely appealing, but as the story unfold, it gets better! The heroine stopped being a crybaby about her fate and really shape up to her role as a Queen. By chapter 7, I think I have an inkling where it is heading but I prob will never know since the scanlated version stopped at chapter 8. Apparently it is a 17 chapter manga series. I have the Korean raw of the last few chapters but I cannot read korean!!! arrrggghhh.. exasperating....guess I have to slowly plough through the pictures to make some sense unless I can find some kind korean reader to summaries each chapter. Too bad my Korean friends doesnt read manga. Rats.... I just have to be patient for new scans...

Then I started on another new Japanese manga knowned as Stardust Wink. It's one of those Shoujo catergory but its nicely drawn and not too bad for first 2 chapters. The squirrel is really cuteeeee!!! Worth keeping in view for this series. Those interested can check out the translated story summary in this site.

Ok I'm just rambling on because I am in a happy mood this week. So many things to read to keep me busy... heeheee

J-Music: The Generous (Skip Beat Opening Theme)

Quite like the opening intro to Skip Beat J-Anime, by The Generous 「Dream Star 」(Download), which incidentally also released a pretty good album.

My fav track from the whole mini album is actually 「Melody」 (Download).

Melody - the generous

J-Music: One More Time, One More Chance

If you still havent catch the Anime Movie - 秒速5センチメートル, hopefully its soundtrack will move u to consider. （Watch Veoh Video - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 with english subs)

The music is beautifully and aptly inserted into the movie, projecting a sense of lost dream, memory of nostalgic innocent romance ... life and love as we know it, described perfectly in a hauntingly pretty song 「One more time, One more Chance」in Part 3 of the video (Download), by Yamazaki Masayoshi

One more time, One more chance - Yamazaki Masayoshi