K-On! ~ Cute high school girls + Good music

Season 2 of K-On!! had just recently end its run on Animax Asia and I'm pretty sad about it. It's one of the best anime I'm watching on the channel right now and to watch its final episode was kind of sad and painful. The anime is about 5 high school girls (Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Tsumugi and a junior Azusa) with their school life and their love & passion for music. It's a light anime with no heavy themes, just about their friendship and similar passion for music. They were the members of the school's light music club and with only 5 members (yup, they were the only members of the club) they tried to keep the club alive.

The characters of the anime are really lovable with their crazy and kawai (that's cute in Japanese) personality. You just can't help but fall in love with them. The plot for each episode are really quite simple, usually about them practising their music (or lack of it which drives Azusa crazy), performing at the school carnival, going to the beach, or preparing for photo shoots for their school's magazine. Their music are pretty good too with a lot of J-pop flavour in it. Personally, I love the opening and ending themes for the anime. They are really good.

The series was originally a manga written and illustrated by Kakifly before being made into anime. The 1st and 2nd season of the anime are actually from the 1st series of the manga. The 2nd manga series will continue on their story in college. I can't wait to see them more in the 3rd season of the anime. I'm really going to miss them!!!

Image courtesy of Lightchan.

Alchemy + maid cafe. Awesome anime on Animax!

Here are two anime series that I currently followed on Animax Asia (Channel 715, Astro Malaysia).

Source: click here

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

So far, 52 episodes had been broadcast. So if you just about to tune in to the show, your kind of late, but it's better late than never right. It tells the story of two bothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who lives in a world where alchemy triumph over science, and their journey to claim back their missing bodies (Edward's left leg and Alphonse's whole body) after attempting (and failing) to bring back their deceased mother to life by performing a forbidden alchemy transmutation.

Sound a bit complicated but trust me, it's a very good anime series. There was a same anime series called Fullmetal Alchemist (without the word Brotherhood) by the same animation studio that made this one, called Bones, but Brotherhood is more faithful to the manga storyline compared to the former that went a completely different path starting from its mid-season.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a part of the same-week telecast program by Animax Asia that features anime that will be aired in its channel in the same week that it debut in Japan. It airs every Friday on 8.30 p.m. with the last week episode aired on 8 p.m.. It is one of my favourite anime series of all time and judging by the great story and high-quality anime production, you wouldn't be surprised why.

Source: click here

Maid Sama!

A romantic comedy anime based on a popular shōjo manga series of the same name. The anime is about Misaki Ayuzawa, the first female Student Council President at Seika High, who secretly works part-time at a maid cafe to support her poor family. Being a very fierce and dictator-like president, especially towards the boys, she cannot let her part-time job being known to the others due to her image in school. However, things got out of hand when one of the most popular boys in school, Takumi Usui, found out her secret. Lucky for Misaki, Takumi is a cool guy and he keeps her secret. And their friendship grew as Takumi find an interest in her after seeing her working in the maid cafe and often give her advice in handling the unruly boys at school.

I rarely watch anime based on shojo manga, not that I hate them but I rarely exposed to them. But Maid Sama! has the kind of vibe that I like. I think I mostly like it because of the humor element in it. It's really funny! I tickles me when I see Misaki turning into jelly-like thing in the maid cafe dressing room, or when she becomes panic when she heard other boys saying the word 'maid' in their conversation, or even when she just walking around after school for inspection with her big, loud footsteps. The show is really relaxing, and I like it.

Maid Sama! is also a part of the same-week telecast program by Animax Asia. So far, 3 episodes had been broadcast. You can watch it every Sunday on 8.30 p.m.

What's happening in December 2009?

Mmm...a lot of things happening around me in December 2009.

1. Britney Spears' birthday on December 2, 2009.
- It's today! Okay, as a fan, I just have to make a shoutout...Happy Birthday Britney!

2. My friends' wedding
- Two of my friends are getting married in this month. Well, I can only go to one event since the other one is too far away. Still planning on what to wear, I don't have much suitable clothes for weddings.

(image from Bleach 7)

3. Bleach premiere on Animax Asia
- Finally...Bleach anime will premiere on Animax Asia (Channel 715 on Astro Malaysia) on Dec. 18, 2009. I can't wait! I really hope they enable bi-lingual audio since I like watching it in Japanese. But of course they need to provide subtitles as well since I cannot understand Japanese. :-P

4. My niece birthday
- I MUST NOT forget this. My niece is turning 2 this 23rd December. Now...what should I give her? I cannot decide!

(image from Wikipedia)

5. Avatar coming out on Dec. 16, 2009
- I had promised myself that I will go to see this movie. I must! I feel like I will be missing something totally amazing if I miss it. Sometimes I will feel very excited about a movie but when the movie comes out, the excitement died away and I will have no interest to watch that particular movie anymore. So hopefully this time I will not disappoint myself. And I'm also hoping that Avatar is as good as it looks in the trailer.


Mmm...so far, that's all I can think of.

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood on Animax!

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood had premiered on Animax Asia last Friday, 10 April 2009, at 8.30 pm (Astro Malaysia, Channel 715). So tonight would be the 2nd episode of the new series. If you missed it, don't worry, Animax would have a repeat broadcast. Unfortunately, I don't know the time, so you better watch Animax to know the time schedule. I tried to find it on the Animax website but failed. I guess they never list it. Or maybe I just suck at finding information. :-P

Also note that Animax would also have a monthly recap marathon of past episodes on the last Saturday and Sunday of each month. So I don't think you have to worry anything if you miss a few episodes.

I hope Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood would do well because I really, really love the previous season, so I hope this season would be great too.

xxxHOLIC premieres tonight

xxxHOLIC premieres tonight on Animax (Channel 715, Astro Malaysia). I'm not sure when is the time but I think it's in the Supernatural @ 10 slot, so I think it's on 10 pm. Better check your Astro Guide (for Malaysians) to get the time right.

I'm not so familiar with this series by CLAMP. I know Cardcaptor Sakura, Angelic Layer, Chobits and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle but not this one. So I hope it's a good series like the rest that I mentioned.

Thanx to Anime Mikomi for the pic. Click here to go to that page.

Can't wait for tonight!

*Update~ Sorry, my bad. It airs on 8 pm (Malaysia time), not 10 pm. Sorry again.

The Place Promised In Our Early Days~ review

This anime film was released in Japan in 2004, I bought the VCD sometime in 2006, but I just watched it a couple of months ago, in 2008. Kinda weird, right? I can be a little bit weird sometimes. But at least I watched it.

The Place Promised In Our Early Days is an anime film created and directed by Makoto Shinkai. It's kinda hard to give the synopsis so I hope you guys don't mind with this short summary of the film. 3 best friends, 2 boys and a girl. The girl went missing. Three years later the boys found out that she had been in a coma (more like sleeping continuously since she didn't involve in accident or anything) and hospitalized for the past 3 years. 1 boy want to save her but the other boy didn't because if she wakes up, the world will 'vanish'. So what can they do???

It sound kinda confusing, right? I was confused too when I first watched it. So I suggest you watch this movie twice to really appreciate it. Besides, the visuals are nice and the story is beautiful too; it explore the emotion of being alone. So no harm in watching it twice. Yeah, the plot is kinda complicated but my VCD have a very bad subtitles so I didn't blame my confusion solely on the plot.

This anime film falls in the drama category so don't expect an action film like Naruto or Bleach. But it's still a nice film so if you like drama, you should give this a try.

Top animated movies

Yahoo! give us the top 30 animation movies from their users reviews today.

Here are the top 5:

1- Finding Nemo
2- Kung Fu Panda
3- The Incredibles
4- Spirited Away
5- The Lion King

Finding Nemo tops the chart, no surprise there. It is one of my fave movies. Surprisingly Kung Fu Panda landed at no. 2 despite just been screened early in June this year. It must have got a lot of positive reviews. The Incredibles is just great, so no argue there.

Spirited Away at no. 4. Wow, I was surprised. I didn't think Japanese anime could ended up so high in the chart. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE anime! I didn't watch Spirited Away though. But I did watched Princess Mononoke and what a superb anime it was. So I bet Spirited Away is just as good too. And at no. 5 is The Lion King which is one of the best drawn animation I had ever watched. Actually, I like 2D animation. Sadly there didn't make much anymore. Kids these days aren't into 2D. Well, maybe except for anime.

The girl from hell

Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl) is one of my favorite anime nowadays. The 2nd season currently aired on Animax (Channel 715, Astro Malaysia) for a third run already, I think.

Every episodes tell a different story but revolves around a same thing which is the Hell Girl. Apparently there is a website, the Hotline to Hell, that can only be accessed at midnight. If someone submit a person name that he/she have a grudge on, then Ai Enma, the Hell Girl will take them to hell. But there's a twist. The person who submit the name will also be taken to hell, but only after they die. Spooky eh?

I love this anime because it shows human dark side like greed and envy, and how people are becoming more and more corrupted with money and modern life. But usually the person who submit the name are the victims of such people. I usually take some time to think after each episode to truly understand the characters feelings and actions because there are a lot to learn from.

A great site I found (click here to go there) stated that the 3rd season has already got the green light to go for production. I'm so excited!!! When I read the comments people posted there, I also found out that someone had made a real Hotline to Hell that can only be accessed at midnight! (gasp!) I didn't try it yet but I hope someone will and verify it whether it's true or not. Go check it out ok. :)

I really recommend this anime to everyone out there. It's a great wake-up call.

Cute story

This is a very cute and entertaining anime.

Midori no Hibi tells a story about a guy, Sawamura Seiji who suddenly had a girl, Kasugano Midori, as his left hand!!! It just happened when he woke up one morning. And they faced several funny and awkward moments together as they tried to keep Midori existence as a secret and live together before things got back to normal.

What a strange premise, you might say. But this is a really good anime, a romantic and funny one too. I really enjoy watching this anime, although it is quite short with only 13 episodes (if I'm not mistaken). The story of the manga is longer compared to the anime. I wonder why they didn't just follow the manga storyline for the anime.

This anime was released quite some time ago, so I guess you won't have any problem finding it in stores.

I also post the ending theme song for the anime. It's one of my favourite Japanese song. I hope you guys will enjoy it too.

Please click here if you want to go to the site where I got the nice pic of Midori and Seiji above.
I also found this great blog about anime and Japanese movies. It has the synopsis and ratings for each anime / movie. Click here to go there.

Letters from the dead

Another cool article I read from The Star (Sunday, 2 March) in the Otakuzone section. An anime called Shigofumi is now showing in Japan. Anime websites and blogs reported that this anime is the best anime series of the season.

The story revolves around silver-haired Fumika, accompanied by a talking staff called Kanaka, who delivers shigofumi (letters that people send after their deaths) to people that she has been assigned to. These letters contain things that the dead person could not say while they are alive, and are honest and direct to the point.

The way they describe it, this anime sound similar to Hell Girl, except Hell Girl help other people get revenge while Fumika help dead people give their final words to the person they want to.

The title Shigofumi comes from the combination of the Japanese words for “after death” and “letter”, which literally translates to an “after death letter”. I get this info from Wikipedia by the way.

I love anime like Hell Girl so maybe I would like this anime too. Since this anime just debut in Japan in January, so it may take a while for it to arrive at our shores.

Cheap anime!

I went to Speedy store recently and I saw that the store is selling One Piece Box set for RM12! That's so cheap. In 1 box contains 6 CDs, so it's RM2 per CD! To those One Piece fan, grab this chance now and get them while they still selling it at low price. I'm not sure when the discount will end. So better hurry up!