There’s a bunch of wax residue around the edges and cracks. I think I’m going to have to use a toothbrush on it or something. :)

This one guy ended up taking 4 different shades of blue and I was quite jealous. I had planned on a green/blue mix, but I wanted more blue than green! It also ended up being really symmetrical which is fairly typical of me. :)

The Toronto Zoo is awesome, but I made sure we avoided the Canadian animal display. Most of them are nocturnal, so you end up staring at a random wooded area where the wolves are hiding. :) The apes were amazing too, I just somehow managed to avoid taking pictures of any of them!

I think my vague irritation with the Viz spines stems partially from the fact that all of their other lines (Shonen Jump, Advanced) have such distinct art. So not only do the ladies have to pay more for our books, but they are boring too?? heh.

It is annoying about the Shojo Beat spines, isn’t it? When CMX first started, they were kinda similar too, but they changed that pretty fast. My theory is that Viz was going with the style used in Japan—a lot of the Japanese editions of manga I’ve seen do the same thing with the “imprint-label on top, red block-lettered title, volume number and author name on bottom” format… maybe it works slightly better because the kana/kanji tend to form shapes rather than hard-to-distinguish lines of text like our alphabet… but it’s still pretty boring. I’m glad Viz is moving away from that with recent titles too. (Kimi ni Todoke also uses a different font!) Just because Japan does it a certain way doesn’t always mean it’s the best way.

Ryoki was an arrogant ass, and was self centered, but as the series went on you could tell that most of his flaws were because of how he was raised. It’s hardly his fault if he acts in certain ways that were either ignored or condoned by his parents! But as his relationship with Hatsumi progresses you can see that he’s learning more about how he SHOULD be treating people – and he does his best in his own way. And SHE’S spineless, yes, but she also stands up to him as well. She was also encouraged – by her brother if no one else – to let people take care of her and Ryoki lets her get away from that a bit. Lets face it – she’s a shojo heroine and most of them are wimps too. Just maybe not to the degree that Hatsumi is. :)

I dunno – under the assy exterior I saw a good heart that someone needed to help him polish I guess!

The only thing I really didn’t like about the ending was Shinogu’s part. :)

“My shelves…”
I meant your manga collection not the shelves themselves :)

Personally, I loved it. For me it was all about the drama, and I didn’t get particularly hung up on any of the morality in the book, and I actually liked Ryoki. A lot of people say that there was zero character development in the series, but i disagree with that, too. :) (These characters were only 16, after all, and I thought they were well on their way to being better people by the end of the series!)

So… I think if you don’t like the characters in it you probably shouldn’t continue. If you treat it like a soap, go ahead. :) I have three or four other friends who liked it to the end because of (yes) the DRAMA! heh.

My shelves… crappy cheap Ikea shelves that I say I will replace someday but probably won’t. :) I’m not sure why Viz chose to be so generic with their Shojo Beat titles. None of their other books got the same treatment!