2 posts tagged “manga”

You ever go back and watch DVDs you've already seen? I rarely re-watch anything unless I'm really in the mood to watch TV and nothing else is on. Then I'll watch some old movie I've seen dozens of times as a kid.  As my tag line suggests I watch a lot of Anime and I own around a dozen titles.  I have access to a LOT more than that.

Recently, I was just in the mood to re-watch two series that I really enjoyed the first time.  First I watched all of "Maria-sama ga Miteru", including ~Haru~, then "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". These two series don't have anything in common other than taking place during high school, which I must admit, I am so far removed from, I can't really remember it well anymore.  Neither of these series are available in the States yet, and if they ever are I will be buying them and anyone who has an interest in anime I suggest you check them out if you haven't yet. 

Haruhi is simply my kind of humor and I'll try to make anyone I know, that has any ability to sit though an animated show, watch it. Kyon completely cracks me up and I think anyone who enjoys a sarcastic wit will love this series. If this show ever comes to the states it'll probably do very well. My buddy Tad suggests I like the show so much because the main character is practically me, but I like to think I'd do better with the girls than Kyon. (ed:He'd be wrong of course.) 

Marimite(for short) on the other hand, I must admit, will probably never be licensed here which I find unfortunate. The audience simply isn't large enough.  Maria is classified by some as shoujo-ai. While I'm a guy, and enjoy some hot girl on girl action Marimite just isn't that kind of show (if that is what you want, watch "Strawberry Panic!" or go looking for hentai which is basically animated pr0n).  Maria-Sama ga Miteru is just too sweet and innocent for any of that to me. Marimite is the first anime that has had me, not only look up it's manga version, but it's novel version as well.  I've read some of the fan translation sites for the novels and for the first time ever find myself really wishing I could read a foreign language. So while I cannot recommend Marimite to everyone if you think you'd enjoy a coming of age tale set in an all girls school where the characters get way too emotional for their own good (an way too attached too BUT IT'S CUTE!)  then go looking for this series.

While looking up the Marimite novel series fan translation sites(look here for a place to start) I also ran into this Suzumiya fan translation site. Which is what sparked my interest in re-watching that anime again yesterday. I must say I haven't been reading much of anything lately and both of these sites have re-awakened my desire to start reading again. For the last decade or so I've not read much, mostly because I've other things to do and reading had lost a lot of it's luster because I was finding most of the things I was reading to basically be uninteresting or a re-hash of something I've already read(ed: he was a bookworm as bad as Nagato Yuki in high school)(Hey! Leave SOME mystery about me!), or just not as entertaining as a online video game. To these fan translation sites I say thank you! You are doing a good thing and I promise if the novels you are translating are ever sold IN ENGLISH I will purchase them.

This is just something I'm gonna do from time to time. List the anime, manga and video games I'm watching, reading or playing.

Currently I am:
Watching: Kimagure Orange Road TV Series
Reading:   Negima! Magister Negi Magi
Playing:    Lord of the Rings Online (beta), DDO, EQ2, and DAOC(quitting Sorry Staten but I just can't get into it again)

Anime I've seen and ranked on the ANN site.
Manga I've seen and ranked on the ANN site.