it can’t all be about manga…

… because I’m still not sleeping!  arg!  Actually, last night was an improvement as I fell asleep at 9:00 pm and woke up at 4:30 am, as opposed to my usual sleep at 9:00, wake up at 1:30, sleep again at 4:30 or 5:00, wake up at 8:30 to be late for work…

Bah, enough whining!  For today is Wednesday, the greatest day of the week!  (Only trumped by Friday, if it’s a payday.)  Due to last week’s flood of Viz manga, it looks like most of the titles I had planned to buy in September have already been released.  I’ll be interested to see what manga makes it’s way into the stores this week.  The two I’m most looking forward to are Hands Off! and the last Hot Gimmick.  Yes, it’ll finally be all over, sniff!  I must say that I liked the first half of HG more than the last part, but it gets total props and extra points for single handedly getting at least 4 people I know (and keep in mind that I don’t know that many people) into reading manga.  There you go.  Instantly addictive and good for luring people in.  :)

Tonight is also the season premiere of Bones, which according to Entertainment Weekly will have a vampire theme.  heh.  Poor David Boreanaz.  He just can’t escape the vampire thing…  Gah!  There were no vampires.  I’m so disappointed.  Entertainment Weekly - you failed me!  Still a very entertaining episode, though.

My new Sex BoB-omb t-shirt arrived from Oni last night.  It’s pretty, but be warned if you plan on buying one - they’re made small.  So a large isn’t quite a large.  Mine was really tight but loosened up after a few hours, but still nothing I’m willing to wear in public, at least not without something to wear over it.  Still, I now have a t-shirt for my favorite fictional band.  (That’s from Scott Pilgrim, for those of you who aren’t cool enough to know all by your lonesome.)  When I ordered it, the men’s t-shirts were AWOL, but they seem to be back now.  I might have gone for one of those, just because I prefer to wear my shirts loose. 

And speaking of weird purchases of stuff I probably didn’t need, last nights jaunt into Chinatown revealed that Ouran merchandise has finally made it’s way to Toronto!  Or, I’ve finally noticed it.  :)  I saw a Tamaki charm/strap thingie (it attaches to a cell phone or cd player, but has a handle), a tin box featuring all of the characters and some sort of compact that I declined to look at more carefully (it was behind glass).  Did I buy any of it?  NO!  My inner fangirl clashed with my inner cheapskate and I decided not to spend $30 on something I didn’t really need.  (They were $30 each, btw.)  Especially when Amy just brought me a bunch of peachy keen Ouran stuff from Japan.  She was so nice to me!

Oops!  Gotta go get ready for work, or I’ll be late again.  And there’s no real excuse for that considering I’ve been awake for four hours…

This week was all about Viz!  I picked up 8 new manga and left 5 behind….  I’ll go back on Friday and will probably get the rest then.  Same deal as last week - I’ll try to update my boring little list as I read the new stuff… 

Ouran High School Host Club 7 - Kyoya gets trapped in a mall with no money and no cell phone!  Fortunately Haruhi comes to the rescue.  Also, Hunny’s brother Chika shows up determined to defeat his brother once and for all (and Mori’s brother is here too - they left him out of that episode of the anime).  There’s also a story with the Zuka Club girls kidnapping Haruhi (the Club guys and her father try to come to the rescue) and we get a glimpse of the twins as 5 year olds (so cute!) and their most beloved nanny….

Gals! 7
Whistle 13
Skip Beat 2
Yakitate!! Japan 1
Rozen Maiden 2
Beauty Pop 1

….and….

I had this conversation at the store today with my comic store friend:

Me, thinking as I browsed the new stuff: Zombie Powder?  Powder?  That’s… so lame.
CSF: There are a lot of new books this week, huh?
Me: Yeah, but what’s up with some of these titles, anyway?  Zombie Powder?  heh.
CSF: That’s from the guy who does Bleach!
Me:  ….  What?  Really??  Arg!  Now I can’t mock it anymore!

I also had to buy it when I had very virtuously decided to stop buying.  Such a hard life.  Anyway, it’s one of the few I’ve read so far and I really really liked it.  If you’ve read Bleach you already know what the art style looks like - it’s pretty close.  Maybe a bit rougher in places since it’s his first book, but I thought it was amazing how good the art is. 

A boy named Elwood gets caught up with a criminal named Gamma Akutabi and joins him on his quest for the 12 Rings of the Dead, which is the source of “Zombie Powder” a mysterious substance that can raise the dead and grant immortality.  This is a western/sci fi type book (think Trigun if Vash were scary) and very much an action story.  I laughed when I read the author’s introduction inside the book:

Hello, Kubo here.  This is my first graphic novel.  Mainly, it’s all battles.  It’s completely OK to just read through it without thinking about anything.  But if you feel like it, go ahead and recall some of these details as you read.  Like for example, in here, the one thing that brings the dead back to life is not God, or an angel, or a Phoenix, but Zombie Powder.  A powder that has a really annoying name.

My friend also had the nerve to call me a geek when I went back for it.  I countered with “Who’s playing a para para remix of anime tunes in the store??”  I believe it was a draw on the geek front.   We also assured a guy that Yakitate!! Japan had only gotten good reviews as far as we both had heard.  “Well, if it’s about bread… how could it be anything less than great?” was his vaguely bewildered answer.  I think he bought it though.  :)

I skipped over three episodes when I realized that this one was from the unreleased-in-North-America seventh volume of the manga. 

Episode 17: Kyoya gets trapped in a department store with no cell phone or money after the Club guys drag him there while he’s half asleep.  Fortunately he runs into Haruhi and they do some bonding over fast food, vendor stalls and melon snacks.  It was neat seeing his personality change when he’s not at school or in the club.  I’m not going to do a lot of screen caps here (because it’s late) but here are a few of my favorite moments:

Kyoya wakes up on the wrong side of the bed.  And as my mother refused to wake me up in the morning for years because she claims I was ”abusive” I can totally relate to this.  (BTW, I deny the abusive charge.  I just get grumpy.)

Kyoya spends much of his day in a bad mood.  It’s pretty funny to see him lose his cool so often.

Aww!  Tamaki’s pretty!  Seriously though, I included this shot because I always get Sailor Moon flashbacks whenever they do Tamaki montages of him being sweet or gathering the club guys.  He’s totally the Usagi of the group.

Next episode, Hunny’s little brother Chika shows up!

Since I’m currently brain numb from work anyway, I thought it would be a good time to tackle the episode of Ouran that stopped my screencapping in its tracks.  Episode 9.  Basically a bunch of reaction shots that boggled my mind when I thought of trying to pick out some appropriate scenes.  I’m not aiming for a great job here, just trying to point out a few things.  Also, please note that I am doing this instead of a) sleeping, b) packing for my trip that I may or may not be leaving for tomorrow, c) cleaning or d) doing the ILL’s I brought home from the library.  It’s that kind of night.

Episode 9: Ouran has some sort of joint celebration with the the Saint Lobelia’s girls school.  Some girls from the Zuka Club show up and want to “rescue” Haruhi from the evil clutches of the Host Club.  The boys fight back!

This wasn’t one of my favorite chapters in the manga, and it’s one of my least fav of the anime.  That said, it did make me laugh, even if it was in horror.

 
A shadowy, dancing menace arrives at Ouran High School.

Obligatory shot of the twins when they were younger.  Here for the cute factor. I love the hair!

Apparently Haruhi is becoming desensitized to being groped by strange people.

In lieu of having characters eating bananas when a pratfall is needed, the writers of the show decided to introduce a monkey. 

The women of Lobelia outdo the Host Club by not only wearing layers of clothes for more dramatic costume changes, but also by having a really bad musical number.

I adore Mori’s expression here.

The horror!  (Please also note that Kyoya is still hot as a woman.  I think it’s because he’s the only one who knows how to wear makeup without looking like he belongs in a brothel.)

The monkey is back!  And living underground with Renge?

Monkey in drag!

Thank goodness that’s over and done with!  When I get back from vacation I’m going to tackle some of the other episodes.  File that under better late than never, I guess.

I just started watching the twelfth episode of Ouran and… the teaser bit at the beginning is the short story from the end of the first manga volume.  The one where tea gets spilled on Bun Bun and the guys try to fix it before Hunny wakes up and kills them all.  I’ve read it I don’t know how many times now and it always makes me giggle.  It’s the panel where Haruhi runs into the wall while wearing the bunny outfit that gets me every time…  hee!

They didn’t manage to get her into the suit in the anime (awww!) but Tamaki gives it his best shot!

Hey, look at me blogging!  Yeah, I've been kind of sporadic lately, but I've been reading, reading and reading.  Actual books, which I haven't managed to do in a while.  I think I read about 10 last week.  It was lovely.  Anyway, I've got some time to kill before Jon Stewart comes on so I thought I'd do a quick post. 

My friend-in-Japan recently went to Tokyo and sent me some pictures.  My favorite was of two Lolita Goth girls mugging for the camera, but it didn't seem fair to post pictures of live people without their permission.  (But when I go next year?  All bets are off!)  Here's another one that I liked, though.  No idea who/what this is supposed to be, but I liked the way the halo just kind of floats there.  This was taken in Yoyogi Park.

My second random picture is from volume 7 of Ouran.  I posted earlier that Hunny's brother would be showing up, and here's what he looks like.  Knowing the identity of the blonde one might be a bit of a clue about who the second guy is.  Oh, and it's not mentioned in the blurb for that volume, but it also features Kyoya in a shopping mall! (From what I can tell with no handy translation, anyway.)  It looks like a fun chapter!

Don't these guys look great?

This one's for Hikaru, who hasn't seen the original Sakura Kiss video.  And after I spent several minutes this evening mocking the stripper-like qualities of the Pussycat Dolls this is *such* a difference!  I'd seriously like to see Brittany or Jessica in a froggy costume… 

And I'm trying to type this very carefully since I got my very first manicure ever today and my nails are all lovely and pink.  A classic pink, I might add.  When I picked the colour the manicurist said "that's old" and I thought I was picking an old lady colour… but she just meant it had been around for a while.  Whew!  It was so fun though - our manicurist was very stern and silent and she kept hitting and tapping my hands to get me to do stuff, but I had no idea what she wanted since it was my first time.  Also, the tools involved are a little scary looking and vaguely resemble the tools you'd see in a dentist office.  I think I'm going to try to do this on a semi-regular basis, though.  Why not?  It's such a girly thing to do and I so rarely do girly things….

I'm going to have fun waving my nails at the guys at the store tomorrow, especially since they so won't care!  lol.

I just checked Viz for volume 7 of Ouran High School Host Club and it's not coming out until September 5!  Arg!  That's way too long.  It sounds so good, too.  Hate… waiting…

Hunny's little brother, Chika, pays a visit to the Host Club–and immediately starts attacking Hunny, using all his martial-arts prowess against his older brother! Chika seems to be the absolute opposite of his sweets-loving, Bun-Bun-toting sibling, but why is he so angry with Hunny? The Host Club is determined to find out the cause…

And while I'm in an Ouran kind of mood, I was checking out episode 10 of the anime the other night.  It's the ep where the Club goes to Haruhi's house after Tamaki has a nightmare about her living in poverty.  Even without the subtitles I was laughing my head off so I can't wait for the subbed version.  Which I now have and will watch after work tonight.  :)

I also finally gave up and created an Ouran category.  I think I retagged most of my Ouran posts but I may have missed a couple of the earliest posts.  Eh.  I only felt like going back so far.