There are a lot of things to be happy about this spring - spring break, the warmer weather, spring cleaning (okay, maybe not that) and of course, the multitude of new anime series and OVAs that will fill the whole week!

I have compiled a list of most of the anime airing this April, most because some of them have inexistent summaries, websites and even cast list ;_;. I have included the site, link to a trailer, summary and at most, a seiyuu list to keep your curiosity piqued. The 33 anime titles are arranged by air date and then alphabetically :).

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2008.03.19 Release - 2 1/2 of 5 stars

Info: Official // wiki.theppn
Support: Global Yesasia // US Yesasia

01. Fight The Blues 02. HEART STATION 03. Beautiful World 04. Flavor Of Live -Ballad Version- 05. Stay Gold 06. Kiss&Cry 07. Gentle Beast Interlude 08. Celebrate 09. Prisoner of Love 10. テイク５ (Take 5) 11. ぼくはくま (Boku wa Kuma) 12. 虹色バス (Niji Iro BUS) 13. Flavor Of Life (Bonus Track)

Alright. I’m saying first off that I wasn’t terribly impressed with this album, especially compared to ULTRA BLUE. It is by no means the worse album out there, but it is her worse (not counting Exodus) as far as her albums go. With that unpleasantness over with, let me tell you why:

Starting with Fight The Blues, this is no hard-hitting-drag-you-into-the-album-whether-you-like-it-or-not song like Is This Love was. Not once she starts singing, anyway. The instrumental at the beginning was promising, but once the singing starts it is a little, well, boring. And that seems to be the overall theme of the album. Both HEART STATION and Beautiful World were previous singles. I rather enjoy the chorus of HEART STATION, and Beautiful World has definitely grown on me a lot, but nothing spectacular yet.

Then, she put the ballad version of Flavor Of Life in. Hoooboy. I couldn’t stand this when it came out, and I can’t stand it now. I’m somewhat mollified that the fast-paced version was tacked onto the end but dude, way to make a slow-paced album THAT much slower. Here we go with the next two previously-released singles, Stay Gold and Kiss&Cry. I like the piano of Stay Gold, but… again. Yawn. Fine songs by themselves, not one after another. Kiss&Cry FINALLY picks the pace up a bit, and I especially like the beginning. It isn’t my favorite song of hers, but definitely one of the best on the album.

After an actual interesting Interlude, we get on to a few new songs. Celebrate has this weird disco-beat going for it. …When I say “going for it” I mean “um, what were you thinking”. And despite that, the song’s lyrics are pretty much a remixed ballad. Yeah, another one. Prisoner of Love is annoying in its repetition, but it has some good points, namely, showing off Utada’s voice. She has amazing control, and despite my beefs with this album, I certainly respect that.

I could almost forget that respect with Take 5. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like the song. It’s just that, ending that way doesn’t remind me of death, and it doesn’t make some serious statement about your song-writing skillz. What it does is a) make me do a double take and make sure my album isn’t corrupted, and then b) conclude it was really shitty album-arrangement/a management gaff rather then you being all indie-artist cool. Umm. Yeah. Not exactly what you were going for, huh? One idea you shoulda just dropped.

Boku wa Kuma. You either love this song, or hate it (I’m a bear, not a car! ). Enough said. Niji Iro Bus is… annoying. I’m sorry, I have to switch the song. It is just so… happy-bouncy-shitting rainbows and really, call me jaded but I just want to roll my eyes. And then we end with my preferred version of Flavor of Life, but I had to sit through all that to get there.

To sum, I like a grand total of 4, maybe 5 songs on an album of 13. The rest I could take or leave. Or, leave in the case of Niji Iro Bus. Not spectacular, especially with the hype this album was getting. Boo.

Well, while I’m posting, might as well do this week’s too, which is dedicated to the much-loved self-styled Queen of Hip-Pop, Amuro Namie! *cheers*

This week was the release of her single 60s 70s 80s and definitely one I was looking forward too! We got a taste of the single with two of the three PV’s last month, and they’ve pretty much been a daily listen since then. All three songs were featured as a CM (commercial) of Vidal Sassoon. Here’s the single, including that gorgeous cover:

01. NEW LOOK 02. ROCK STEADY 03. WHAT A FEELING 04. NEW LOOK (Instrumental) 05. ROCK STEADY (Instrumental) 06. WHAT A FEELING (Instrumental)

NEW LOOK is the 60’s themed song (take a look at the VS commercial over at youtube for a sample), and was based off of The Supreme’s “Baby Love”. It is a flirty, fun, and intensely catchy song, and I think the PV is adorable!

ROCK STEADY represents the 70’s theme, and features the amazing Aretha Franklin same-titled song at the beginning and for inspiration. This is my favorite of the three songs and show Namie definitely still has voice, even when she doesn’t show it. Also, her hair is gorgeous and I WANT that blue dress/shirt/thingy! Take a look at the VS commercial over on youtube to see what I’m talking about!

Finally, WHAT A FEELING took a few listens to grow on me, and I definitely prefer the chorus, but I really do like this song and the robots in the PV crack me up! This song features Irene Cara’s “What A Feeling” and you can preview it here on youtube!

Dear God.  This week was brutal in terms of amount of releases… and I’m still missing some of them, which is why this post is late. I had hoped to find everything before Wednesday, but looks like stuff will still be trickling in for awhile. It was, however, a very good week! Here are some of my favs Read the rest of this entry »

Title: Midnight Secretary

Author & Illustrator: OHMI Tomu

Genre: Romance, Smut, Supernatural, Shoujo

Volumes: 4 (Ongoing)

Publisher: Shogakukan (Japanese)

Year: 2006

Official Summary (Aerandria):

Kaya thought she had found the perfect job when she became the private secretary of Kyouhei Touma - the director of a tableware company of the same name. Kyouhei is a capable director, but his arrogance and sluttish behavior are almost legendary. Kaya is doing her best to prove that she is capable in her work, but one night, by accident, she discovers his secret… of him being a vampire!

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I’m pro vampire, therefore I love it. Kaya is your typical shoujo female who thinks she’s not pretty, but is pretty. She lands a job as a devil’s secretary and is ‘perfect’ in what she does. At first, he didn’t want to hire her because she wasn’t pretty enough, but she asked him that she proves herself before he makes such a decision.

Not surprisingly, he kept her as his secretary and she then realized that he was a vampire during one night.

Only two volumes have been released so far and it hasn’t disappointed me yet. Please keep in mind that this volume contains scenes not suitable for children due to its mature content, but nevertheless, it’s a very interesting story that’s worth reading.

Another thing to note is that one of the story’s genres says ‘smut’, personally, at nine chapters, I haven’t stumbled across anything graphical yet, so if you’re not a fan of smut, it’s still safe to read.

I give it an 8/10 rating.

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Sources: Anime News Network, Aerandria

Title: Hana Yori Dango / Boys Over Flowers

Author & Illustrator: Yoko Kamio

Genre: Shojo

Volumes: 36 (Complete)

Publisher: Shueisha (Japanese)

Licensed by: Viz Media (English)

Year: 2004

Picture: I’m having problems uploading the picture from work, will do it as soon as I get home today - apologies XD

Official Summary (Anime News Network):

16 Year old Makino Tsukushi is 16-year old girl, from a mid-class family, who, due to her brains, gets into an ultra high-class school called Eitoku Gakuen. One day she accidentally gets on the F4’s, bad side *they’re a gang at school*, and from then on she suffers from hazing. She fights this back, and while doing so falls in love with one of the F4’s members. However, another one of the members also falls in love with her.

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Drama, love triangle, betrayal, lower class, upper class – all defines what you’ll find in this manga. When I first began reading, it was appealing. Even though the art/graphics was not something I was used to in this century, it had my interest. However, the more I read, the more I began losing interest.

The story just kept on dragging with unnecessary drama that was too much for me to adjust. There are some things just not possible in life. The story had a lot of ‘slice of life’ elements, but it threw that away with non significant things.

The problem is that I am not able to point many things out as I would be giving away a lot of spoilers. You’ll just have to read it and make your own opinion about it.

Please note that this story has been adapted to anime and J-Drama.

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Sources: Anime News Network