Review: Gravitation Ex (Vol.1)

Title: Gravitation Ex volume 1
Author: Maki Murakami
Age Rating: T+ ( or OT by TokoPop standards)
Publisher: TokyoPop
Genre: Romance (Shonen Ai) and Comedy

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Hello, all (and by that all five of you!)

Today I'm going to be doing a review on the sequel to one of my top ten shonen ai series. Gravitation. Moar specifically, Gravitation Ex vol 1 (Because apparently TokyoPop decided to fail me and shut down, now I'll never know what happens in volume 2!!! yes. I'm too lazy for scanlations).

So this basically takes place right where the last volume of the original Gravitation manga left off. Now, I love Gravitation with a passion (I watched the whole anime twice, but only got to volume six of the manga) but this book was kind of a disappointment. The only thing that kept me reading it was the fact that I loved the original and kept hoping that it'd get better!

Let's start at the beginning.

The cover art features a very feminine looking Shuichi with purple-ish hair looking like he's tightrope walking towards the front of the page. Next to him stands Yuki, who's actually smiling a little bit while looking at Shuichi's ass (or something). Most importantly, THIS YUKI DOESN'T LOOK LIKE THE YUKI I'M USED TO! 

The art has changed drastically since reading the original. Granted, the art in that changed over time and I only got to volume 6. So I could be wrong.

And now for the plot. Stop reading if you don't want [SPOILERS]

1. Shuichi and Yuki go to New York to visit the grave of guy who apparently tried to rape Yuki because Yuki loves him and killed him but wasn't arrested for it (lolwut?)

2. Shuichi acts stupid.

3. Yuki and Shuichi find this baby.

4. Shuichi acts stupid.

5. The baby turns out to be the guy who Yuki killed's son (because that makes perfect sense...)!!!

6. they take said baby to Japan for some stupid reason.

7. Yuki and Shuichi have sex.

8. the above statement is a joke.

9. Yuki kicks the baby (wow...I'm not even joking this time) on the plane back to Japan

10. Stupid stuff happens

11. Ryuichi appears. In a bunny suit. Of course.

12. SHUICHI AND RYUICHI KISS! I like to pretend that that part didn't happen.

13. Yuki saves the baby from getting hit by a truck

14. Yuki gets temporary blindness.

15. More stupid stuff happens.

16. end of volume.

Okay, so maybe I'm being to hard on it. It's just that the whole Shuichi/Ryuichi thing never really worked out in my head. Perhaps it adds to the drama, but I won't know that till I read volume 2. Which is never coming out in the US. Stupid TokyoPop. The art was really good. I'd gotten used to the old style of drawing when I read the original, but this was a really nice change. Some of the panels were a bit busy and difficult to follow, but the basic layout of the manga was fine. I also have to remember that this is only volume 1. If there were more, I'd buy it up quick. 

So, random plot aside, it was a very decent manga. I'd give it three out of five stars. 

How I Became an Otaku

hello. Today's post will not be a review. Today I'm talking about how I got into anime and manga. So let's start at the beginning, so...about four years ago.

When I was in seventh grade my next door neighbour was really into manga. More specifically, Naruto. As in, the anime/manga (I didn't know the difference at the time...) I used to think wasn't anime at all. Mostly because I's a shonen series, so...without the big eyes like in shojo manga. Anyway, she would draw the most beautiful art ever. I love art, so naturally I tried to copy her style (It was all mostly Harry Potter fan art for me back then) because I found it so beautiful!

One day, she loaned me a copy of "Tokyo Mew Mew A La Mode". It was difficult for me to read, since I couldn't get over the fact that IT WAS BACKWARDZZ! I didn't find it very interesting because it was confusing to read. But the art was beautiful! Of course, back then I thought it was the best thing since sliced cheese.

Six months later, in eighth grade I moved away and went to a new school. At  the schoolastic book fair, I noticed something odd. They happened to be selling several copies of different manga! I thought "Hey! This is the stuff that my friend showed me last year!" so I decided to buy "kitchen princess volume 1". THAT, ladies and gentlemen, was the first manga I ever bought. I went home and read it twice (because I was still getting used to the whole backwards thing) and LOVED it. I went back the next day and bought "time guardian volume 1" and read it over the course of the whole day (what? pay attention in class? blasphemy!). The next day I bought "Translucent" volume 1. I was hooked. Then I started buying manga at the bookstores. Then I subscribed to "Shojo Beat magazine".

Now, looking back I realize that the first three manga I bought are most certainly not the best I've read. But back then I thought they were the best thing in the world! I still go back to Kitchen Princess and reminisce.

Then I started watching anime.. the first anime I watched was "Tokyo Mew Mew". Then it was "Fruits Basket" (which I watched in one sitting on YouTube).

Then, around Christmas 2008 or whatever I started watching Naruto, upon learning that it really was anime! I entered this phase of "being obsessed with Naruto". I bought the manga. I bought posterbooks. Then...

I discovered yaoi. I became a regular yaoi fangirl. I shipped EVERYTHING Naruto related. Yes, I read yaoi lemons on Fanfiction . net. Something I rather regret now that I think about it...anyway. After a few months I grew out of my Naruto phase and my yaoi phase. I occasionally read yaoi, but never the lemons. (don't ask me how a lesbian can possibly read yaoi and like it. It's not like I get off on it, it's just entertaining to read and laugh at it). Then I got into Fullmetal Alchemist. No yaoi there...but I did read EdwardxWinry fanfiction. No lemons.

And it went on from there. I slowly delved into the madness that is anime and manga fandom.

Then came video games. I recently got into video games within the last three or four months. Zelda. Final Fantasy. Kingdom Hearts. Mirror's Edge. the list goes on.

So it's been about three years since I got into all this. I've grown up a lot since then. I'm currently obsessed with Death Note (again, because the first two times I watched it I couldn't wrap my head around the plot). I used to think that Naruto was all big and bad because of the "cursing" and the "violence". ha ha! I compare that to some of the stuff I watch now ...

So anyway, that's a little bit of my background. Hopefully I'll be back with more anime rants and reviews

-Awesome Alex

Review: Tale of the Waning Moon (Vol.1)

Title: Tale of the Waning Moon (Vol.1)

Author: Hyouta Fujiyama

Age Rating: M 

Publisher: Yen Press

Genre: Romance (yaoi) 

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Okay. So this was the first book containing actual yaoi in it that I ever bought. I believe I bought it several months ago in February or something. Dunno. Anyway, point is, this is the first yaoi manga I ever bought. It's actually kind of a funny story as to why I bought it. Of course, I was using my birthday money at the bookstore. I also happened to be underage and not "supposed to" buy M rated manga. Not to mention yaoi.

Anyway, my step dad was there with me and he didn't seem to notice. Neither did the old guy who sold me the book in the first place. Neither of them know about yaoi, or my dwindling passion for it.

Now onto the book.

This manga is about a man (Ryuka) who is dumped by his girlfriend and decides to drink a shit load of alcohol and stand on top of a hill to wish for a new lover (he's straight). Then this spirit of the quarter moon with a stupidly hard to pronounce name (Ixto) appears before him decides to grant his wish, but the people he presents the main character with all happen to be men. Then Ixto has random sex with him. Then he leaves and tells Ryuka to find him (because apparently the random sex made him want to go look for him). So he goes on this long journey to find Ixto with his companions, a cat boy who looks like he belongs in a shota and a dude whose in love with his horse (no joke). Every place they go SOMEONE tries to have sex with Ryuka, which makes the manga look like some sort of awkward harem.

The art is kind of awkward, but definitely not the worst I've seen. The plot is okay, if you're not planning on taking it seriously. There's sex in it, but it's very vague and it's not explicit at all. Well...depending on what your definition of "explicit" is. Heh heh...but over all I'd give the book a three out of five. Even so, I'm going to buy the next volume (which came out in June) the next time I come across it in a bookstore. Because this was the first yaoi I'd ever read, naturally I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. It's a good manga to read if you're interested in something more than shonen ai, but less than hentai. 

So that's my (very lengthy) review of Hyouta Fujiyama's Tale of the Waning Moon.

1. Welcome to this blog

Hello!
So some of you (or none of you) know me as "that crazy chick with the blog where she writes about shit in her life". Yup...that's me.

So I'm starting a new blog.

This one shall be different.

I'm going to start doing reviews.

Anime, manga, video games (albeit very rarely), music, and the like.

If you have any suggestions, I will take them into consideration.

So please enjoy this blog...thing. Yea.

So GO FORTH, AND REEEAAADDD!

eh hem.