just natto's take and shallow thoughts about the manga natto's bought and read. ^^ with minimal knowledge of japanese, there's bound to be mistakes... but hey, natto is not one to be taken seriously, after all. take with a grain of salt.
let's look at the happy collection!
= japanese manga
= magazines
= translated manga
= top
2003.02.12 : got march ribon!
finally, my sister brought home natto's ribon that has been overdue for nearly two weeks. (sankyuu, aneki~!) ah, azuki ryou's art graces the cover... it's been a while since azuki's art got featured on the main ribon. ^^ natto's too tired to read at the moment, but natto flipped through...
the back of ribon mentioned the full moon o sagashite anime will end sometime in march, so i guess the manga might end sometime soon as well. ;_; it's such a shame... the current full moon manga is only at chapters 15. jeanne was much longer in comparison -- 30 chapters + 3 side stories. i hope tanemura arina will push the story much further, nevertheless. but what is natto saying, natto hardly has a firm hold on the story... o_O;; anyway, the present chapter! it has a pretty takuto x mitsuki 2-page cover spread, but curses for the cluttered text. ~_~ natto saw summary posted at a full moon mailing list, so natto will go read there~ (yes, natto is a bum.. ^^;;). recapturing from the last episode, mitsuki ran away (after having been confirmed about eichi's death or something, whatever jonathan said to her) and now the shinigami-tachi are frantic. izumi is looks really cool dripping wet in the rain. *heart* he's bickering as usual with takuto, and suddenly... CHU~ *swoons* bwahahaha~ how nice of tanemura to include some sudden shounen ai fangirl service! XDDD shounen ai doujinshi must pop up from this! oh well, it's just a little scene, but still... *hearts* anyway moving on to the following pages -- let's skip the dialogues, it's pictures natto's looking here //flip flip// ..ooshige finds mitsuki (12) out in the street and takes her to her place where they talk... //skip skip// ..the long-haired guy what's-his-name-who-likes-ooshige comes over, and mitsuki, realizing this, slips out queitly... //flip s'more// ..later takuto finds her and they talk.. //talk talk talk, with some faded images of eichi// ..then takuto hugs mitsuki and after some more talk, he confesses that he loves her. ^^ end of chapter~ .....um, well, yeah, it's not a summary after all. *shrug*
next is nagatachou strawberry! natto likes this story so far... well, natto so happens to like sakai mayu's art, thought she was a very promising artist when natto saw her debut. ^_^ ichinose hime is the daughter of the prime minister, but she wants to hide that fact so that she could have a happy high school life but her first day of school has proven that she's stepped into another nightmare. natto will summarise for this~! but for now, you get crappy-style stuff like that *points above* at school, hime is approached by reporters, who she immediately runs away from, only to have tripped over natsuno (wai~ natsuno with akuma wings, kakkoii jan~~ XD) and hurt her knees. with much talk, natsuno carries her off to the infirmary. hime finds his bank account book and is shocked by how many zeroes there are. $_$ i don't understand what comes next... everyone's talking about hime and looking at her like o_o. the two reporters finally corner her what follows doesn't look happy. At home, she gets a peptalk with her caretaker/butler/whatever-you-call-it. (does he have a name yet? ^^;;) next day, school, hime finds unpleasant news about her on the headlines of the (school's?) newspaper. she runs into natsuno, returns his bank book and runs away. of course, natsuno goes after her and there's talk, talk, talk. and lastly, we see the president of the student council meet up with hime. to be continued...
natto's getting extremely tired, so enough of the page-by-page picture report. brief picture overview from now on. ;P
aishiteruze baby **... it doesn't seem like kippei's mentioned to anybody about meeting yuzuyu's mother. the story focuses on kippei and kokoro relationship. meanwhile, yuzuyu befriends a boy who reminds me of a light-haired sen. ^^ cute~
love wan!... um, what is this chapter about? it looks really crazy and bizarre and full of dogs! azuki ryou's heroine this time, noa is as hyper as ever and full of cuteness! she reminds me of somebody.... who is it? natto can't remember. x.x the closest natto can think of is spiral's hiyono, but that's not it... *who is it??!* @_@ i don't really know what's going on, actually... ah, lijaka's page should be having summaries for this. head over there~ ^_^
ultra maniac... ano.. reading pictures does not help understanding what's going on. T_T head to zahara's for this. ^^
dice... natto hasn't gotten the chance to devour and take in the early chapters. i think there are translations online. natto'll go read them first~ ^^;;;
max lovely!... natto couldn't keep up with the story, so natto can't comprehend a thing. suman. ~_~
ojizo quest... a yomikiri by yuuki akira~ ^_^ ah it has plenty of guys and a cute heroine from the looks of it.
sakuragaoka angels... *shakes head* natto hasn't been following this either, sowee. ;_;
saint dragon girl... it's *gasp* the last chapter!! ;_; wow, time flew really fast, i can't believe it's finally ended. momoka and ryuuga are finally raburabu, and i remember momoka say "kekkon shiyo". ^^ well, natto didn't really flip through. will save that for bedtime reading. ^^;;
aigokoro... yomikiri by ouhara akuru. e~to.... natto likes how she draws the face expressions for the guy. ^^;;
furoku: wai~~~!!!!! a nagatachou strawberry poster~~~ XDDDD uh, and there's omake stuff at the back or something, i don't remember. yuzuyu's memorial binder is a ring binder, kinda like the one they use for the annual ribon planners, and the cover is pink embossed plastic. there's also paper notes for this. maybe natto'll use this instead to keep natto's notes... if natto ever makes them. ^^;; then there's haruko hairclips. looks very cute~ and the full moon fold-it-yourself thingy looks cute too. ^^ the trading cards... bwaaaa natto's gonna cry~~~ *cries* ;_; i didn't get it. i didn't get the meroko+izumi card, and it's *the* one full moon card that natto wants more than anything~~~~~ (natto got love wan! and aishiteruze baby, btw) *cries some more* natto'll do anything for this~~~ ...ok, maybe not just anything, but natto would trade one (or both in despair) of those two extra cards natto got from last year (a full moon and ultra maniac, if not mistaken) for this card! or maybe for a sakai mayu nine puzzle card would be nice too. i didn't get any nine puzzle cards last year... *cries again* trade, anyone? next month natto *must* get the nagatachou strawberry card, natto *must*!!! natto will be getting two ribons anyway, since it's 'that time of year'. that's right! pen case and file zenin! ^-^ i haven't deceided what to get for this month's zenin yet. i really need a new wallet... i like ultra maniac's but it only has a little card case. i would've liked an ultra maniac pin badge or key chain mascot.... so it's between aishiteruze baby and sakuragaoka angels (natto'll pass the shocking pink full moon o.O). maybe i'll get s.angels for a change. but baby looks nice too, and it closes with a button and has both mascot and badge...
april ribon: ultra maniac tv anime?! that's what was written (very tiny) at the um panel! natto would prefer aishiteruze baby to be animated instead... O_O anyway, 60p aishiteruze baby chapter, new enomoto chizuru series and kitazawa kaoru yomikiri. =) a new gag comic is debuting too. furoku: a kiritori set, full of memos, post cards, etc; yuzuyu stationary set or something with markers, a badge and those long horizontal border sticker tape. ultra maniac geometry rulers (waii~ i wonder if they're accurate to be used in school? *holds up broken shards of what had once been natto's protractor (my pencil box ate it, i tell you!)*), clear dice bag, some funky animal yokochou fortune-telling cards, ribon all-star stickers and, last but not least, trading cards (natto wants nagaberi (can i call it this? ^^) and full moon's route:l!).
speaking of gag comics, this month's animal yokochou has a colour page where the art is done in 3d-style. ^^;; oh, and what happened to sensei ano ne? when did ichigo orange move to ribon? oh maybe gag comics alter once in awhile...? i know they're everywhere in ribon magazines for one...
2003.01.26 : ramblings about natto's latest purchases
natto sorta skipped school for two days to go to kl to see off my parents, thus
chancing the oppurtunity to go to kinokuniya. ^-^ it doesn't seem like kinokuniya
has been stocking up with new stuff lately... or maybe it's just that my timing
was off and everyone else has already snagged all the good titles. :( i got only
7 books, and this time some were picked on a whim.... natto is a very cover-biased
person. ^^;; i'm very disappointed in myself for not getting any rmc titles. maybe
it's a sign that natto is starting to outgrow ribon? no way, natto still loves
ribon! *hugs ribon magazines furiously* there were a lot of other titles natto also
wanted but didn't get, and now natto wonders just why didn't she get them? natto wa
baka dakara... x.x well, i had to limit my purchases... must not drill a hole in
father's wallet... be good girl... save money... ^^;;;;
anyway, what i did get:
ANGELIC LAYER [5] by CLAMP
finally! natto's angelic layer collection is complete! to tell you the truth, natto
prefers the anime to the manga. it seems to have a much deeper plot, and looks more
shoujo-ey. i know angelic layer is shounen, and clamp's art here is very different
from their other works, very plain and rough, even the sd's aren't girly cute. very
fitting for its genre. natto likes this art style of clamp, i wonder who drew it?
for one thing the guys aren't very broad-shouldered as the usual clamp guys are.
natto doesn't really understand why misaki was crowned winner in the end, but natto didn't really read in the first place. ^^;; flipped through... natto sees misaki defeating oujirou. then natto sees misaki playing against of that girl whose sister misaki fought against before... what was her name? alice? ..or something. ...and then defeating her. then natto sees misaki fighting against her mother... kinda short fight here... then natto sees athena winning, but misaki being crowned champion -- natto is puzzled here, but anyway -- and then there's a special chapter of misaki's mother living together with misaki and her aunt... misaki's mother is so cute in the manga! ^^ she looks much younger too, which makes natto wonder how old could she be... and if natto's memory reads correct, there's also the usual icchan and ogata chapter... and the end.
well, i don't know what i was expecting. the story and art are both plain and simple... i guess its charm point lies in the technique and abilities used in the battles and the humour among the character's interaction, not story plot or art. well, this is shounen after all. the anime boosted its popularity with its high quality animation and dramitization of the story. i must admit, natto was drawn to angelic layer by the anime. natto hasn't really fully read and studied the manga, actually. ~_~ i know there are translations floating online. the online site natto knew (but doesn't remember right now ~_~) that had all the chapter translations took it down when tokyopop started to release their licensed, translated version of it. :( there is no way natto is gonna pay more for a cheaply produced product at a higher price that the original. ~_~ no, natto no buy tokyopop's angelic layer! natto will find translations, that natto will! the us isn't the only english-speaking country. people do not have to remove english translations off the net just because a manga is licensed in the us.... because, because non-us citizens, english-speaking people like natto needs them.... ;_;
Fruits Basket [10] by Takaya Natsuki
yay, now that i have the tenth volume, can natto say that natto is close to being
up-to-date with the latest furuba chapter? well... maybe not, but i think this is the
latest volume out, so natto's not really far behind.... :) but for some reason natto is
really lost with the story. must be because natto only read up to the part where kyou's
sensei/instructor/whoever he is turned up, and is missing volume 8 (hatsuharu-sama! *_* how
cruel to not let natto own the hatsuharu-covered book...). it seems that lately the story
has been focusing on characters other than tooru and the main 12-shi people. in the last
few volumes there were stories about uotani's past and hanajima and her cute little
brother. this volume has a story about some girl (natto hasn't found her name x.x) and kana
which has to do with hatori and kana's little love affair... ah, natto doesn't know, natto
is lost, i tell you! @_@ must read back volumes, must find translations (natto's manga
fandom cannot survive without them, can it?), and maybe i should try to find a good furuba
mailing list and rummage through outdated messages. ah, kisa on cover is very cute~ ^_^
natto loves kisa-chan!
Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de [2] by Mizuno Tooko
natto started to get interested in this series after seeing the music cds having really
great seiyuu... *v* well, the manga will have nothing to do with voices, but natto could
use a random shoujo fantasy story for a change. when i bought the first volume not long
ago, natto found it very fushigi yuugi, having flipped through. i've been reading the first
few chapters aloud to myself but i can't comprehend 3/4 of it... x_o the words are too
difficult. and natto is too lazy to seek jisho-sama. so i have no idea what's happening in
the story, but i still want to get more since there are still characters that have yet to
make appearance. if i remember well, the 2nd volume introduces takamichi, inori and... i
think there was another person... or was it just those two? and then there was some story
about tomomasa (i hope i got the right name...or was it yorihisa?) and some
princess-looking girl. natto was kinda disappointed that yasuaki doesn't appear in this
volume. i'm starting to like him. he is *so* pretty, and green-haired. XD and shimon is so
cute! it just makes natto want to draw fanart of them with lipstick and sexy, tight female
clothes! XD XD XD XD (excuse natto, natto is becoming obsessed with pretty boys as of late
*is dragged off to be knocked out cold*) um, anyway, natto was kinda lost when natto saw the
chapter that where akari, shimon and tenma were at school (akari looks much nicer in normal
clothes, but that's just natto's preference :) ...and shimon sooo cute and cuddly! XD)...
it looked like they've returned to their normal lives... or is this just a flashback
sequence or side story? but if natto remembers well, the end of the chapter sees inori
eye-bandaged and furious about the miko. did natto mention that she has no idea of what has
been going on since the first chapter? this volume also includes a short non-haruka by
mizuno tooko.
by the way, natto also chanced upon a haruka artbook. natto didn't get it though. it was wrapped in plastic, so natto could only admire the cover. ...maybe natto wants it. natto isn't really into mizuno tooko's style, but natto adores the designs of the clothes and the chinese-japanese theme that haruka has. maybe natto will get it. if it's still in stock the next time natto storms through the store. yes, perhaps, perhaps. *cackles*
Saiyuuki [1] by Minekura Kazuya
boy, is natto glad that natto randomly browsed the bottom of the back shelves out of
boredom, or she wouldn't have found this! ^-^ i found two versions of this actually, one
was the original gfc one published by enix, and the other was the new re-released version
under zero-sum comics by some publisher whose name slips natto's mind, the one that natto
snagged happily. ^^ natto's already read most of this volume from online scanl -- translated
scans, i mean... do not make me say that word, it's stupid, it's not even a word, and natto
doesn't support them -- natto only gets them because natto has no choice... i mean it! see,
as natto was saying, natto's already read half of the book, but natto's buying the book
anyway because natto wants to support the author! see? natto's being a true manga fan! XD
ne? ne? (*coughs* excuse natto, she's being bitter over people who completely butcher works
of manga art and giving no credit to the original author *gets dragged off again for more
knockings*) weeeell, as natto was saying, natto bought the zero-sum version because the
cover is, of course, much nicer than the previous. and also because surprisingly, it was
much cheaper. i didn't compare the price in japanese currency though, i was only thinking
about my father's wallet. ^^;; i hoped i made the right choice. it includes a four-paged
colour illustration of each of the main characters... natto wonders if it is the same as
the original? the art looks like minekura's recent style, and since the new cover features
new art, it could be they switched the coloured illustations as well... or so, natto
thinks. the rest of the contents ought to be the same. the paper seems to be of a much
higher quality, but it could just be that my copy is still new and yellow-free. ^^;; oh
well, natto was a tiny bit disappointed that this book didn't turn out to be saiyuuki
gaiden, or natto could have gotten two saiyuuki books... at least natto has something to
add to her saiyuuki collection. ^_^
Tokyo BABYLON [1] by CLAMP
ooh, a bought-judged-on-cover manga! ^^;; true, when natto saw this natto fell for the
stylishly-designed cover... and the pretty green-eyed boy on cover! how natto loves pretty
guys in uniform and coat! XD natto couldn't just pass it up after being lured by the
gorgeous cover, could she? since it was by clamp, natto thought why not give it a try? it's
one of clamp's older works, so natto doesn't expect much of the art. the style is very much
of that of X, in its early stages of life (natto assumes that the art for X has improved
over time, right?). i've only flipped through, and i see that subaru is being very pretty
in that cute hat (heh ^o^), seishirou very broad-shouldered and hakuto... makes me think
that she's just stepped off the a ballet set. x.x she and subaru may be twins, but couldn't
she have been given a more feminine look, or at least, normal clothes? hakuto looks like
like a horrible male crossdresser, and i was hoping that that was what she was when natto
first saw her.... ^^;; ah, i guess it's one of those crazy characters of clamp. natto won't
torture her brain and eyes reading aimlessly, or at least yet, because there's bound to be
translations out there... natto just has to find it. ;P so natto still knows nothing as far
as the story's concerned. but it looks good. natto might get more of this, and just because
of the pretty coverboy! XD
Yorozuya Toukaidou Honbo [1] [2] by Saenagi Ryou
another series natto bought because of the cover~! ^^ natto has no idea about the story,
let alone how to read the title. o_O it looks a bit like shounen ai type of manga, and
natto definitely wants shounen ai manga, but it didn't turn out to be as shounen ai-ish as
expected. but it has hints! and hints are good enough for a yaoi/shounen ai fangirl,
because we have the power of fanfiction, fanart and doujinshi!! bwahahahaha!!!! *gets
dragged off once again* so it turns out to be a detective type of manga. oh well, mysteries
are good, natto loves mysteries.... i read the 1st chapter halfway and this fellow,
yoshitsune is hired by kaori, a model whose stage name is kyou, to get rid of some
stalker. yoshitsune disguises as kaori's girlfriend to inverstigate his workplace and....
natto has no idea what happens afterwards, but i guess yoshitsune is successful and later
kaori seems to have teamed up with yoshitsune with his business... which is a
jack of all trades detective, as natto has read online.
i want to get more of this~! ^^;; it has 9 volumes altogether. not much, natto hopes... a few more trips to kinokuniya and natto could have a complete collection. kinokuniya had all the volumes when natto was there... until a fangirl bounced in with her friends and took off with volume 7, crippling natto's chances of collecting them all... ;_; that girl was talking excitedly about manga, and she really wanted to get a whole bunch of manga but she didn't have that kind of money, she could only buy two (i think originally she only wanted to get one, but in the store she insisted to her friends that she must get two) books, and she got all excited when she saw yorozuya manga, and even mentioned the drama cds and how she wanted them. (wai, natto wants them too!) and then she stalked off to the counter with the yorozuya manga... if only she were my friend... i would love to borrow manga from her collection! *_*
oh yeah, the drama cds! natto bought this manga after seeing an ad for the drama cd in the later volumes. it must be good to have a drama cd produced! natto checked marine entertainment's web, since most of hana to yume comic cds seem to be produced by that company, and surely, there it was, yorozuya published a couple years back. ^_^ wai~ ishida akira plays yoshitsune, and kaori is.... chiba susumu. sweet! natto wants! but first natto needs translations and websites to give natto a rough outline of the story....
manga titles that natto wanted to buy but because natto's brain is so incredibly stupid, she abandoned them:
uh, maybe this is a sign that natto really has nothing good to do... T_T;; but natto is a bit tired of typing. natto will just list down the titles and little notes to make her brain think over its mistakes. ;P
Card Captor Sakura 9+ - CLAMP
-----uh, natto kinda forgot up to which volume she already owns... hoe o.o
Chobits - CLAMP
-----natto lost her intention of getting it after seeing all the volumes that were once
on the shelf disappear... but why didn't natto grab that last copy????
Full Moon o Sagashite 2+ - Tanemura Arina
-----bwahahaha it's not even in the store! natto's ordered it since december and it
still hasn't come in... ;_; somebody is gonna be slaughtered if natto doesn't get that
izumi and jonathan trading card... that guy that took natto's order better
beware....
Milk Crown 2+/H/Lovers / anything by Mizuto Aqua
-----why didn't natto get it? natto's been yearning for something by mizuto aqua... oh
why does natto keep ignoring her manga, only to regret when it is gone???
Pita-ten - Koge Donbo
-----the 1st volume wasn't available... disappointment
Yami no Matsuei 2+ - Matsushita Youko
-----no 2nd volume...but why didn't natto just skip volumes? natto might never get to
buy another ynm manga for all she knows... why???
Akazukin Chacha 3-5,13 - Ayahana Min
Zetsuai/Bronze since 1989 - Ozaki Minami (bunko edition)
Gokinjo Monogatari / Tenshi Nanka ja nai - Yazawa Ai
Marmalade Boy 3+ - Yoshizumi Wataru
Mimi o Sumaseba / its sequeal, forgot title - Hiiragi Aoi
Passion Girls 3,5 - Fujii Mihona
Shin Shirayuki Hime Densetsu Pretear 2,4 - Naruse Kaori/Satou Junichi
something shounen, for a change
-----like hikago or puriteni or--
....if natto were to go on she'd probably list all the titles that met her eye while she was in the store.. O.o we don't want that, do we? enough is enough! *is dragged off for good*