Voltage Inc. Character Rankings Part 1

I made this video more or less explaining what I loved and hated about every character I've played from voltage.

Yes I made a spreadsheet (cos I'm nerdy like that) and it's more or less self explanatory.

• Design - How much I liked the character design. Kiyoharu scored low on this cos he kinda looks like Ichigo from Dreamy Days in West Tokyo

Video: Manga Haul & Nameless Postcards from Cheritz

Mars Manga yo~

I recently got a the whole series of Mars by Fuyumi Soryo which I wrote a review about some time ago. Being my most adored series, I more or less had to get my hands on it especially since Tokyopop closed down and stopped releasing stuff in English (they still publish in German). All the volumes cost me about $70 AUD which is about $55 USD. Fairly cheap considering they're mostly in good condition (albeit the 2 volumes that were library owned) and postage in Australia is horrendously expensive. Overseas postage to Australia is even worse mind you.

How I started reading BL & 4th Birthday

Ok guys, so I don't know if this is much of a milestone since I've been blogging on and off for ages but it's been 4 years since my first blog post. Also today is my birthday so I'm officially 19 now whoooop.

Anyhow I know this blog has been congested with Otome plays and the reason I haven't done a manga review is because I've been reading BL aka yaoi.

SAAAY WHHHUUUUT?

Otome Plays: Dream Life, Picture Book, Theme Park & Obssession

First post of the year and I thought it'd be nice just to simply talk about the last few episodes of this series.

After the jump, they'll be spoilers ERYWHEEERE so you've been warned.

So with what you've might have already guessed.

Yeonho is a total ...

Otome Plays: Cat Named John (YH Route)

Hey everybody. It's almost the end of 2014 so I decided to pump out a new video of my Nameless plays as parting gift for the new year. 

Otome Plays: Banjul (YH Route)

Another Nameless play of Yeonho's route which I started 5 months ago but never finished got around to continuing. My hardrive broke so I had a bad taste left in my mouth because of recording this game.
Not much to say but enjoy this episode and the next installment will come out soon though it depends on how many people like/comment :D

Update: R.I.P QSMR, Kieuana is born

Hey everybody? Had a nice Christmas?
I've been gaming and manga-ing so I more or less have dropped the ball for the nth time due to laziness/work commitments. Anywho, I've decided, after a lot of thought, that my clumsily made url of quickshoujomangareviews.blogspot.com was more a less me being un-creative as hell.

So I chose a a shorter name that represents me. I am worried about the whole broken links debackle but then again, I'd like a fresh start at this blogging thing.

I will post a otome plays post really soon as I haven't done so in about 5 months.

Bye all :D

Latest Fix: Henyoku no Labyrinth

Name: Henyoku no Labyrinth
Author & Artist: KUMAGAI Kyoko
Chapters: 21 (ongoing)
Genres: Romance , School Life, Shoujo, Supernatural
Plot:
The story follows a love struck girl who is unfortunately in love with her sister's boyfriend, Hiroto. After her feelings are found out by the couple, she thinks her life is over... That is until she receives a magical key that allows her to travel back in time. Miyako is determined to use this second chance to confess to Hiroto before he develops feelings for her sister. Will this be second encounter be fruitful or will she discover that there are some things that simply can't be changed?

Overview:
Oh boy, I had to write the plot for you guys since the sypnosis on most sites is either non-existent or simply vague. Anyway, I don't make it a habit of picking up manga that is under 20 chapters since waiting for chapters is antagonizing (having the same problem with Rokka Melt by Toma Rei).

I'm currently addicted to this and though it seemed like it was going to be a short and typical story of: girl meets boy, falls in love, angst/complications, big confession scene and then happily ever after, it actually has a fairly compelling story.

Shoujo Manga Cliches: HNR Love Triangle

Time to revive my Shoujo Manga Cliches segment to just sit down and talk about the craziness of Hirunaka no Ryuusei since it's finally ended. Unlike most love triangles, HNR was actually fairly balanced and had some sort of uncertainty regarding who would get the girl. In other words, no one felt alpha or beta in the love triangle. Most mangakas make it very clear who the canon pairing is but HNR made it feel a lot more ambiguous in my opinion.  Though not all of these theories prevail standalone, if there are 3 or more, you can best bet the dude who fulfills all of them will 99% of the time be together with the girl. Let this pseudo-analysis begin!

Update: I'm on social media y'all

Hey, just an update on my further expanse of the interwebs. I've always been pretty crappy at micromanaging social media accounts and this blog in itself is no exception. Nonetheless since blogger isn't all that community orientated and I feel like I'm more or less on an isolated island, I've decided to expand and make some social media accounts so you guys can follow or interact with me as you please.

Please support and like, I feel like I need to start regularly blogging again. I've also started drawing but since I'm not good enough for deviantart, I'm going to post a lot of my doodles on instagram so remember to follow me there.

So I haven't drawn consistently for 5 years but I have improved a lot from the last few months I started drawing again. #bishoujo #anime #manga #art #drawing #istillsuck #ionno

A photo posted by Anneko (@ann_eko) on Nov 11, 2014 at 6:43am PST

I've also started admining this fb page about shoujo manga so I'll see who that pans out. Until next time ^^

Otaku Wrap Up: Short people problems

I've done posts like this before where I basically summarise what I've been doing for the past couple of months, whether it was reading a slew of manga, otome gaming and just doing anything otaku related (which you can find here and here). So I'm officially making this segment official and it will have a fairly arbitrary update frequencies.
I've done a fair bit of otome gaming (mostly voltage mobile games cos it's in English son) so I will save that for a completely separate post (I'll link it here once it's posted).

Without further ado here's a list of interesting mangas that I've been reading:

Finished: 

Color (2011) by MIMORI Ao

Short people problems

Same mangaka as B.O.D.Y (if you need a point of reference) about a couple of neighbours and childhood friends. The girl is in some unrequited love yada yada, spoiler alert, they end up dating. Really nothing new of groundbreaking but it was executed fairly well and was just short and sweet (about 7 chapters long).

Manga Cap: Ana Satsujin

I'm making a info dump/ master post of all the notable mangas I've read for the past few months I've been on hiatus so stay tuned. This was one of the few shounen manga I started reading. Some messed up shit right here so proceed with caution.

Manga Review: Tsuki no Shippo

Name: Tsuki no Shippo 
Author & Artist: Ueda Rinko
Chapters: 42
Genres:  Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Harem, Historical, Martial Arts, Romance, Shoujo 

Plot:

Usagi is the granddaughter of the leader of a prestigious ninja village, but she's such a klutz that she's never made it out of the lower class. Frustrated with Usagi's lack of progress, her grandfather sends her to marry Lord Hanzo with an order to breed many ninja children. But the lord has no interest in her or her childbearing potential!

Review:
Ueda Rinko is probably not the most original artist around but she probably has my favourite art and the most entertaining/addicting stories. More or less, she embodies what stereotypical shoujo plot lines are all about: bishies and dumb but lovable heroines.

Usagi, despite her lack of talent in shinboi law and possessing any common sense, is your average 15 year old who is a little selfish, demanding and boy crazy. I usually hate characters like this but given her age and sudden betrothal I can forgive her for feeling this way. Plus she's the type of annoying that isn't grating or hate-able.

Where is the Shoujo community?

Nanahoshi Kiyoharu from
True Love, Sweet Lies.
What's this got to do with the post?
Nothing, just stare at the bishie,
It will cheer you up.

Shall get to a review soon since I recently finished reading a few mangas like Ueda Rinko's Tsuki no Shippo and Toma Rei's Reimei no Arcana. It's been a long time coming but I was more or less hesitant to pick up something that reminded me of Fushugi Yugi (which I shat on in another post eons ago).

Anyways, one of the things that I've come to consciously realise today is that the shoujo and josei demographic don't have much of a community. I mean sure there are forums but nothing mainstream enough unless it's a specific series. With the market being dominated by predominately shounen and seinen titles and anime following suite, it's no wonder such a niche genre is often overlooked in mainstream discussion.

Latest Fix: P to JK

Name: P to JK
Author & Artist: MIYOSHI Maki
Chapters: 15 - ongoing
Genres: Comedy,  Romance, Shoujo, School Life
Plot:

From ANN:

Female high-schooler Kako met Kouta at a party for adults. Although she gets into a good mood with him, she finds out he's actually a policeman.

Overview:
Hey readers, it's been awhile. Sorry for my disappearance yet again. I'll make a post about the happenings for the past 2 months and mangas and otome games I've been playing.

Anywho I actually haven't picked up much new manga but this is one of the few I've been following that has left some sort of impression on me.

Initially it's a fairly interesting premise with the policeman but soon it kind of devolves into some really unrealistic shoujo plot that requires you to suspend disbelief all up on another level. If you are able to get past this short coming, it's actually quite a solid series. The mangaka somehow blends in the shoujo universe logic, romance, friendships, some character development, some great side characters and a good foothold on darker themes like abuse.

Maybe the way the story is set up lowered my expectations and allowed me to enjoy the story for what it was. So give this series a go if you're looking for a light-hearted romance that isn't stalled with a fairly good plot and likable characters.

How to buy online smut manga

As someone who uses Renta as a means to legally obtain manga, having your money slowly deplete as you binge read everything has become a problem. More or less, especially with smut, you have to break the age old saying "don't judge a book by it's cover" and actually start doing it. I have made the mistake of impulse buying and as a poor, jobless, university student, savings are everything. So by making plently of mistakes, I've come up with some rules I follow to ensure I don't buy shitty smut manga.

Ao Haru Ride getting a Japanese film adaptation

Kou looks pretty hot, I'll know
I'll need a bucket to catch my drool

As all of you may know, Ao Haru Ride has already got an anime (withholding comments until at least the 5th episode) and now it's getting a live action adaptation to go with it.

I hope people understand that what makes a good adaptation of any manga into a live action film or drama is that they consider their purpose of the film and try and re-image it to a more realistic interpretation. Copying the manga exactly and turning it into a movie makes it dull. If I want something exactly the same, I can just go read the manga or watch the anime.

FMK: Lost Island

SLICE AND DICE BITCHES

After finishing playing this phone otome game recently, I decided to make a fuck, marry and kill post because I needa talk about these bishounen here. I might make a review of this after I get all the other endings but my impression of it is pretty damn great so wait till that post comes but I ain't making any promises. And whoops, profanity is here so be warned though I don't know why'd you be on the internet in the first place.

So to quickly summarise what Shall We Date: Lost Island is all about, you are some scientist gal who comes on this island to research some vague thing in some shady ass mountain where deaths with an "unknown cause" have occurred. Blah blah blah, shit happens, ZOMBIES ERYWHERE 3 hot bishies, who are you gon' choose to give your kokoro to/ protect you/ potentially make babies with? 

Now time to bring in the FMK scenario into this because why not tbh?

Here we go, I'd:

Manga Review: Kyou, Koi o Hajimemasu

Name: Kyou, Koi o Hajimemasu
Author & Artist: MINAMI Kanan
Chapters: 99
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, School Life, Shoujo, Slice Of Life, Smut
Plot:

Tsubaki is a girl who loves making her younger sister's hair pretty every morning, but she doesn't think that kind of style suits herself! The day of her High School Beginning Ceremony, after she failed in being the top student (who usually makes the ceremony speech), she finds herself sitting next to the actual top student of the first years, the worst rude guy ever, Kyouta. She ends up cutting his hair on purpose because of the bad things he says to her. Kyouta demands that Tsubaki pay him back with her body, but Tsubaki fixes his hair instead--making it even shorter! After that, Kyouta unexpectedly kisses Tsubaki and swears that he'll make her his woman.

Review:
I dropped and picked up this manga several times already and I've only finished all 99 chapters recently so I will give you my personal thoughts on it.

It's basically your typical shoujo, teen wangst romance. Not that I have a problem but it took itself way too seriously and the main character, Tsubaki, was wangsting the whole way through about her feels (whining + angsting).

Reading list for June/July

Sorry for lack of activity in the review department and otome gaming but I've mainly been busy and burnt out from life in general.
Anyway since I'm not sure what to review at the moment, I'll give a short list of relevant series that I've finished reading this past month along with a summary.

I'm excluding oneshots and other odd series because they're too boring to be mentioned or ongoing series that haven't really picked up yet. So in chronological order we have:

80s and 90s

Shiroi Mado no Mukougawa by HIKAWA Kyouko (1980)
Your typical childhood friends school life story that builds up to the confession scene and ends. It's quite charming though and has a bit of the late 70s manga art in terms of style without the galaxy eyes. Being a fan of Hikawa's works, it's nice to see her art evolving compared to Kanata Kara which is one of my favs.

Tokyo no Casanova by KURAMOCHI Fusako (1983)
It's a story of false incest where the main gal finds out her bro ain't her bro and she starts having feels for him basically. It's quite dated with hair styles and clothing but I like it for that. It has some idol/actor industry themes to it to if you like that kind of stuff.