All group pictures today. And coincidentally, all of them have white backgrounds, hahaha. Anyway, first photocard is of Inuyasha. I remember buying this on a sale. The quality’s not so good compared to the new ones, but I really like the picture so I got it anyway. I like Miroku a lot. A lecherous monk is something you don’t see everyday, lol. And he’s so cute when paired with Sango. :P
Next is from Love Hina. While this isn’t exactly one of my most favorite series, I have to say that I really like Ken Akamatsu’s art because it’s so visually appealing. My favorite is Shinobu. ^_^ Kitsune’s drawn an “x’ mark on Motoko, is that because she’s always wielding her wooden sword? Hmmm..Kenshin? ^_^ The problem is, it doesn’t match her cute kimono. Lol.
Last pic is from Chobits. We’ve got a blushing Hideki who’s probably dreaming of the three other female main characters. When you think about it, each has a familiar personality that you see in other anime. We’ve got a pleasant, nice woman in the landlady, a spunky high school student and a sexy but heartbroken teacher, hahaha. Chii seems to be imitating Hideki again. Or is she slightly frowning because he’s preoccupied with thoughts of other women? ^o^
The first Angela Aki song that I heard was “This Love” from the anime Blood+. I have a copy of this series but even though I haven’t seen it, I fell in love with her voice. It’s just so clear and strong.
Later on, my sister raved about the beautiful theme song for Final Fantasy XII. It was “Kiss Me Goodbye”. When I heard it, I thought the voice was mighty familiar and as I thought, it was Angela Aki once again. ^_^
I think Angela is a very talented performer. She writes songs, composes them and plays the piano as the main accompaniment for her songs. Then I also mentioned about her amazing voice. Since she has experience living in America, her English skills are superb too perhaps that’s why she’s also famous in US. And yet, her Japanese songs are equally well-received by the people.
“Home” also happens to be the title of her latest album. I really love this song, the opening bars are somewhat familiar but it gets better and better. Please try listening to it. ^_^
I absolutely love most of CLAMP’s works. And while I was still a budding anime fan, Card Captor Sakura was one of the most memorable series for me. I first saw it in local TV (channel 2) where it’s dubbed in Filipino. I didn’t know much about seiyuus before, but even now, I honestly think that channel 2’s dubbing of CCS was very good. I was able to see some reruns a year later, and I still like it. ^_^ Later on, I got my wish of owning my own copy of the series with the original Japanese audio and English subtitles. I watched it again, haha. And whenever I’m feeling bored and would just want to watch something I’ve seen, I’d pop in a CCS cd. :D
The main plot of CCS starts out in a simple, straightforward way. We’ve got Kinomoto Sakura who begins her story as a normal fourth grader who encounters or rather, awakens her magical abilities and became a Card Captor who finds the magical Clow cards and seals them to her power before they cause havoc. What I love about this anime is that the main character realistically changes and matures as the series progresses. From a childish fourth grader, she blossoms into a thoughtful sixth grader by the end of the second season.
The main character is not the only one that does the maturing but the plot as well. As the series moves on to the second season, more complex and serious issues are tackled. A lot of people (including me) would assert that it’s not your average magical girl (mahou shoujo) show.
Aside from Sakura, there are so many lovable characters to choose from. Ordinary humans, mascots, magical beings, you name it. You’ll have a hard time picking your favorite. :D
The series also has a good musical accompaniment to please your ears. A good number of OSTs with memorable opening and ending themes, image songs and a bunch of good bgm songs…ah, heaven. ^_^v
A-chan’s rating for Card Captor Sakura: 9.4 / 10
I first heard of the duo Depapepe through that really cute music video of them that I saw in Animax. That music video is for their song “Summer Parade”. After hearing that, I knew that I must absolutely hear their other songs. Luckily, my sister was able to nab a lot of them from various sources.
Among their songs, “Wedding Bell” stood out a lot because it was a really nice and mellow song. I think I prefer Depapepe’s slower songs than their faster ones (though Summer Parade was quite catchy). Wedding Bell would probably be most suitable for listening while lying down or looking out the window (for drama effect, haha). ^^
When I was still an MTV fanatic (read: when I’m in the room, the TV is fixed to the MTV channel and I have their daily schedule memorized and hitlists recorded) and I found out that the Irish band The Corrs were to perform in MTV Unplugged, I was elated. The Corrs is probably one of my most favorite bands of all time because of their great tunes and equally superb lyrics.
“No Frontiers” is one of the songs included in their Unplugged playlist. I tried researching on the net if this song was already produced earlier but I couldn’t find it in their past albums so I’m assuming that this song was made for their MTV Unplugged album (along with “Radio” which became their promotional single for the album). Anyway, this is a very relaxing song; the girls’ voices are accompanied solely by the piano. The lyrics are very inspiring too. Enjoy~
I wanted to feature a Bleach song but the most difficult part is choosing which one to put! Bleach is like Full Metal Alchemist, so many great opening and ending themes to choose from. In the end, I picked Younha’s “Houki Boushi”.
When I first heard the song, I thought that it was really catchy and dancy. I also immediately (and easily) picked up the rhythm and the tune. In short, Houki Boushi is one hell of an LSS-worthy song.
The fact that this song was used while showing all the Gotei 13 captains and lieutenants is a plus. The images for every ending theme are different and the song is not the type that you’ll easily get tired of it.
I said to myself that when I learn how to make videos, I would certainly use this song. ^^;; I so love “Rewrite”. It was an LSS song for me for such a loooong time.
Among all the FF games, I would probably put FFVIII on top of my list. I think I’ve lost count on how many times I’ve re-played this game, my sister and I could almost memorize the dialogue and the sequence of the story. We might’ve memorized the monsters’ names and the magic they carry too. O_O
So anyway, I’m supposed to talk about the video, hahaha. I experimented a little on this, when I placed a clip of Squall, Rinoa, Seifer and Edea and timed their appearance to the beat of the drums in the intro. I hope it was effective. ^^;; Then for the first stanza, I placed the other main characters – Zell, Quistis, Selphie and Irvine and for the second, I placed Fujin, Raijin, Laguna, Raine and Ellone. The other clips showed action-packed scenes and occasional Squall-Rinoa stuff. Hope you guys like it. ^_^
