3rd day of Manga Advent Calendar 2015

Hello everyone, here is the third day of Manga Advent Calendar 2015.Now as I said as yesterday’s hint that the manga is really realistic to my situation and life and I’m sure you can all agree. Today’s selection for the manga advent calendar is Watamote or as the manga title puts it“No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys' Fault I’m Not Popular!”

 I bought this manga on a day which it was pouring with rain outside and I was stranded a bookshop called Waterstones. I was forced in the bookshop for approximately 40 minutes until it had stopped raining, whilst it was raining I investigated the manga section and found they had Watamote volume 1 in stock and I decided to buy it to pass the time whilst I waited for the rain to stop. I was so preoccupied by reading this manga that I was informed by the stored assistant that the shop was about to close and that I should leave. There have been many occasions where I’ve kept this in my bag as it is a good way to pass the time and think positively.

 The story of Watamote is pretty easy to follow, the protagonist called Tomoko Kuroki is an aspiring middle school student who is about to move to high school and in the hopes that she will become super popular, that does not happen and the story is all of her misadventures in trying to become popular and interact with people. Along the way we have many comedic situations which I as a person can relate to such as being awkwardly shy around strangers, being forced to work in a group with a stranger, trying to adopt a different persona and a bunch of other stuff to try and get people to like them.

 The manga is really good and the anime is really true to the manga so that’s a plus, I currently have three volumes of the Watamote manga had I hope I will receive more soon. The reason why chose this to be in my manga advent calendar is this year has had me interact with a lot of new people as I’ve started a new chapter in my life. I’ve started university (or college depending on where you’re from) and this has resulted in me interacting with all new people and having to make positive impressions, I used to have a really bad reputation when I was younger because they always saw me as being “strange” for liking stuff that nobody else likes for example anime and a love of Japanese culture. No with me being in University people seem to accept that I have my own likes and dislikes, my university even has an anime society in which we all have our own opinions and discuss anime and watch it together as a group. To be honest with you I’m really happy especially for having the blog because even then I’m still able to talk to somebody who is reading my material, and I thank you for reading my material even if you have only read one of my articles or if you have clicked this link by chance, I thank you.

I shall see you guys tomorrow for the 4^th day of the Manga Advent Calendar, here is this hint for today. The manga I will be looking into tomorrow as a horror manga that deals a lot with blood but has a deeper plot than anybody thinks.

Bye for now

Fiona

2nd day of Manga Advent Calendar 2015

2nd day of Manga Advent Calendar 2015

Hello everyone, here is the second day of Manga Advent Calendar 2015.Now as I said yesterday the main character of the manga for today is a “Clean Freak”. The manga for today is Clean Freak-Fully Equipped, it’s a personal favourite comedy manga of mine. I believe this manga is lesser known as it is not widely stocked in most stores. I got this manga when I was on holiday as there was a specialist manga store. This manga was also on sale for £2.50 which is really cheap, where as some manga can cost upwards from £8.00(I am not made of cash) .

The plot for this manga is the tale about Sata Senda who is a clean freak, he comes into contact with a girl called Aiuchi during the school trip, she begins to help reform him from his Clean Freak ways. She then moves away to America, as he moves on to high school he meets new people who he learns to open up to. We have the cute shota called Yui Anzai, he has an abandonment complex since his mum left him. We have the girl who wants to use him to her own ends called Sonoko Yumeno, who is in fact the childhood friend. We also have the mute who loves animals called Sotsugu Kiriyu.

 

The reason why I love this story so much is that it is a positive story and how friendships can help people overcome long term issues they have. I love having my friends to help me when I am down so it seems fitting to pay tribute to them within the Manga Advent Calendar. With Christmas its also a time for reflection on how the year as gone for me to see the year in its full form so I looked at nostalgia and now i'm looking at my friends, and seeing all the fun we have had this year.  

I shall see you guys tomorrow for the 3^rd day of the Manga Advent Calendar, here is this hint for today the nature of this story is realistic to what we as people go through. with a love of anime and manga.   

Bye for now

Fiona

1st day of Manga Advent Calendar 2015

Hello everyone, as I said in my Battle Royale Review I was going to do a manga advent calendar. I will be reviewing all of my purchases of manga for this year within my advent calendar and every day there will be a new spotlight manga that I will talk about and why I bought it.

 

So for the first day of Advent I will be bringing to your attention Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, the remastered 2003 version which I bought as part of a set of 6 volumes. The reason why I bought this large collection of Sailor Moon volumes is because I was always a fan when I was younger, as it was one of the first anime I was shown to masquerading as a cartoon (the classic magical girl anime trope was made popular within this manga) I was super excited for the release of Sailor Moon Crystal which is basically a remastered version of the original series, without all of the unnecessary filler which as a child would have been fascinating to watch but being much order now I see it as a time wasting activity.

 

The plot of Sailor Moon is simple to understand though it gets complicated the further down the rabbit hole you go. The basic plot is Usagi becomes a force of justice known as Sailor Moon, her job is to find the rest of her comrade’s and help save the Earth. There are several different parks that I own but as we are looking at the first volume I will not overcomplicate things. In the first volume we are introduced to Sailor Moon, Tuxedo mask, Ami Mizuno aka Sailor Mercury, Rei Hino aka Sailor Mars, Makoto Kino aka Sailor Jupiter and Luna the cat who acts as a guardian for the team. In terms of reading material it is all straight to the point in concise with the plot which was one of the main problems I had with the original series looking back. This manga is a favourite of mine not only for the nostalgia but also for the inclusion of an additional pack of six stickers that came with the set.

This is the advent calendar for today and I hope you will read in for tomorrow’s advent manga selection I will give you a hint for reference for tomorrow. The main character within this manga is a clean freak. That is all the hint I will be giving tune in for tomorrow’s blog post to find out if your suspicions about what manga I selected was correct.

Bye now Regards Fiona

Battle Royale Review

Hello, one of the new teen fads at everybody I know is into as The Hunger Games series written by Suzanne Collins. The idea of 24 people fighting to the death in order to gain some sort of benefit towards their own moral standpoint appears to be an original concept. But after closer inspection you can see that the main core ideas within the hunger games were taken from a novel known as Battle Royale. (As a side note I will not be referring to the release of the movies which in my opinion do not do the source material justice)

 

The original Battle Royale source material Original writer Koushun Takami in 1999.The original manuscript was very successful but it had several grammatical errors as it had been poorly translated version of the manuscript. Recently the manuscript was re-mastere was given a new lick of paint, so that is the copy I have been reading. I’ve also read the manga series which is pretty good althoughthe grammatical errors are annoying and dull the experience .

 

 

Now time for the plot breakdown, the story is set in an alternative 1997 with Japan has become a republic and all outside influence has been banned by the government. The main setting for the story is the island Okishima which has been specially prepared by removing all native islanders from the island so that the government have control. The main plot of the story is that a class of 42 students is abducted by the government and forced to take part in “the project” which is a constructed by the government in order to show an example of the power the government holds over the citizens of Japan. There are a lot of political undertones within the first few chapters of the novel which kind of sparked my interest as it has the direct link with the militaristic government style that is such a prominent feature of The Hunger Games. Another direct comparison you can draw between the hunger games and Battle Royale is that the number of students and the number of tributes are exactly the same and also the Erin one person left setting (coincidence, I think not) with such a large cast of characters it is incredible that most characters have depth to them such as getting to know their character and their plans are on the island. I will not be spoiling the plot of this novel because this is seen as being a modern classic novel (and yes I have written essays on this in the past) and for you to truly understand the novel read the paperback version first and then read the manga (don’t bother with the movies, they are low quality imitations and do not express the depth that this book contains)

 

 

 

The book in itself interesting from several standpoints first off on the front page it contains a map of the island laid out in grid square format (similar to the map that the characters will use within the plot) it also contains a list of every character that is contained within the book which is very helpful because with 42 students roaming the island it can get pretty confusing about who’s who. Another thing of note is that this book is very large the exact page count is 647 pages, the chapters in themselves are really short with 79 chapters in total plus epilogue.

 

My personal opinion is that action within our lives this book is the perfect companion to when we want a bit of dark horror action within our lives. There is a lot of talk about how the horror anime genre is increasing in size and personally I would love to see this be adapted into an anime or even a Western-style movie (technically it has adapted into Western-style media with the release of the hunger games but I’m not going to split hairs when it comes to source material) it is definitely worth a read or even as a Christmas present to yourself because after all images can scar you in a certain way but when you read it and use your imagination to visualise the amount of core that is contained within this novel it can be seen as one of the most violent texts within modern times.

I hope you enjoyed this review of the Battle Royale re-mastered edition, with Christmas coming up I will hopefully be able to write more articles for you all (Tokyo Godfathers, the quintessential Christmas anime movie) I will also be explaining my manga collection because to be honest I have more than enough manga to do a advent calendar.

Regards Fiona Scott

My Sweet Lady Art Print

Hello guys so I have got a cool Halloween inspired art print form the guys at Black Streak Entertainment. The print is called My Sweet Lady, which is a  silhouette of one of their characters called Lady White Cake. Now  normally
she looks sweet and innocent as demonstrated below but the version I have is much more sinister  take on what appears to be a sweet character.

here is my art print as shown below and as you can see its a stark contrast with the cute atmosphere of the original above. I love the contrast with the red and the white and also the large smile gives a interesting atmosphere to the art work.    
 

 

so if you would love to have one of these you can get one at the link right here http://www.blackstreakstore.com/MSL-RED-8-5-X11-UNFRAMED-ART-PRINT-p/red.htm?goal=0_5cadda2038-52fee6cb4b-64779469&mc_cid=52fee6cb4b&mc_eid=d374815284

That's my art update, I will talk to you and give you guys an update.

Regards Fiona Scott

SLA 2015-Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion

Hello guys first,I should give you some details on what SLA is (SLA is short for Scotland Loves Anime).Its a festival that takes place in Scotland every year it is a massive show case for a lot of anime films that other wise would not be shown to a mass western audience. They have the show case in two of the major cities in Scotland Edinburgh and Glasgow(Edinburgh gets more showings overall)

I when to see Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion, which is a continuation from the original anime and also the other two films which basically the same as the anime(even though there are characters in the first two films that are more fleshed out in the anime aka Mami).well as a fan of Madoka Magica I was confused about the need for a sequel, the story has a satisfactory conclusion in terms of the main story came to a end. There may have been a few ends that may have not been tied up but that was irrelevant to the main viewing experience. overall the anime was amazing ( I give it a 8.5 out of 10) so what more can come from the storyline that is tied up so nicely.

Well the story is told from Homura's  point of view (I will not explain who she is as that will spoil most of the plot for Madoka Magica so for the talking point of this insight she will be classified as SUPER IMPORTANT TO THE PLOT) after she finds out that things might not all be perfect within the ending that that me as well as the other fans of this series thought was a good ending. Lets just say the ending is not what a lot of fans were expecting (even though you can see why certain events took place)and also has no definitive ending.

Now one thing I have to talk about is the animation style, its a mix of 3D modern animation style but also has traditional 2D style. When blended together we see amazing backgrounds and action sequences.it is amazing to watch ( even though some times it can get really trippy)and the studio used every last drop of funding to make this amazing.

Now at the screening there were people who had never seen the series or the first two movies, I feel sorry for them because there was a lot of elements from the original plot, I imagine that this film was like a roller-coaster whilst high on injections that you get at the dentist.so the moral of the story is do some research before booking a film that are sequels or are linked with a set franchise.

Over all I think the film is good as a independent film, but as a sequel to the original plot line of  Puella Magi Madoka Magica I see this as being a altered ending to the story and as a fan of the original ending I don't like parts of the film but I like other parts like the ethics and moral messages in the plot line. Overall I give this film a 7.95 out of 10 (This is not my favourite anime movie by far but its up there)

I would love some ideas on what I should look at for anime films, if you have a suggestion please let me know in the comments below.

I will see you soon
Regards Fiona      

             

DIY Popping Cooking

Hello Guys

Here is a project I did with my sister on an afternoon when we were both stuck on what to do. I got given a Popping Cooking Sushi Kit as a gift for my birthday. So my overall view on this candy making kit is that its amazing. It has a lot of elements that would allow you to become a  scientist when you are creating something that looks amazing but also tastes good as well.

Well the box contains a tray, a spoon,a pipette, an assortment of different powders and a plastic tray.so you get a large packet of white powder which when mixed with water becomes like rice except it is like jelly. Then you have both red and yellow powders that create a thin jelly, yellow being egg and red being tuna. you also have a piece of black candy that you can roll out to look like sea weed Then you have a powder that is clear that you put into water to dissolve, then you make the next powder which then becomes like orange jelly. Then the best part with the pipette you drop in the orange jelly into the clear solution, and then they become jelly balls that then look like salmon roe.

overall the effect is really cool and it was a really cool thing to do with my sister. I think I will do another one like this at some point, if you have some suggestions on what DIY projects I should do next then comment down below.

See you all soon with a larger update in the next few weeks
Regards Fiona Scott