Hunter x Hunter volume 5-11

Hunter x Hunter does not leave out any interesting subjects, I’m impressed… Now it’s about negotiating!

And I have come to like “Benz”, that’s cool, somehow *g* If I had a knife one day, I would name it “Benz”. There are very few objects in my life that have a name, only the old plushies that I have for over 10 years now. But nearly every fictional object I want to have one day has a name:
– Hermes for a motorbike
– Sumomo for a laptop
– Erda and Freya for a PC (with two partitions, of course)
And now Benz for a knife.
I still need a name for
– my future sewing machine
– my future car
– my future bass *g*

I particularily like the humour in HxH. With this kind of humour, it surprises me even more that he’s married to Naoko Takeuchi who does not show any trace of humour at all! But oh my, at least she managed to make him a son. *hrrrr* He must have any problems… otherwise he wouldn’t marry a bad-looking, princess-like and humourless woman.
(In fact, I liked Sailor Moon and I want to have the special edition SO badly *puts down in wishlist*)

Notes on chapter 88: Bluffing?

Yes, indeed, the manga has becoming more interesting again… *g* At volume 10, just like a certain person I know had predicted *hrrr* Absolutely lovely, I cannot wait to read more!

The techniques about bluffing are gorgeous. I remember having read until volume 10 back then already, but the only thing I really remembered were these bluffing techniques *g*

Arrr~, I have to say that the Ryodan look incredibly well designed. Especially Shizuka – she’s teh sex, even with those simple eyes. But the others look intriguing as well…
I have to think over my opinion about Hisoka. I really hate him, but on the other hand, he has his principles while killing people (if you can say such a thing *g*)
I have to say that the mobile phone design is absolutely gorgeous XD It looks so old and lovely *g*

I like the Ryodan arc now. Okay, I still don’t like it as much as the hunter exam, but I extremely like the characters – while at the hunter exam, the characters themselves weren’t that interesting (because they changed the whole time), it was the intriguing story elements that made you continue reading.

It is so great to see Kurapika smile at the end of volume 11! It reminded me a bit of Ayanami’s smile at the end of volume 3 in Evangelion (yes, I read the manga before watching the anime and yes, I found that particular scene a LOT better in the manga). It saddens me a bit to know that Kurapika will be disappointed soon.

Hunter × Hunter volumes 1-4

As I mentioned it awhile ago already, I decided to pick up reading this manga again. And since it’s so long, it might be a good idea to blog about it *g* If I come to like this, maybe I’ll blog also about other manga.

Awww~, Gon’s pet Kon is so incredibly cute… and the other animals too! *___* (He himself is cute as well! XD I wonder if he’ll grow up, just like in Hikaru no Go where the protagonists have become really handsome *g*) I wonder if Kon will ever appear in the manga again… considering how much I like him already after 2 pages XD A shônen mangaka who draws cute animals is rare *_____*

Notes about chapter 4: Your daughter or your son?

It’s great to re-read the manga from the beginning again. I notice so many little things that I didn’t when I read it 4 (or 5?) years ago. At that time, I only really noticed chapter 3, the test with the 2 questions (“If you can only save your daugther or your son, which one would you choose?”) Out of all those action/battle manga in the german shônen anthology Banzai!, this chapter had convinced me that this manga is (at least slightly) more intelligent. And I liked how Gon looks rather dumb on the surface, but is able to think deeper than everyone else. To be exact, I was amazed by that chapter: Such a simple question, and so much meaning behind it!
I hope HxH will stay as good as this. (I even heard it gets better after volume 10! I’m looking forward to it~)

Mangaka x Mangaka?

Oh, and I’m still wondering why such a good mangaka is married to Naoko Takeuchi, the biggest and probably most stupid mangaka diva out there. Hm. (Why doesn’t he try Masami Tsuda? *hrrr* They’d fit.)
A propos Masami Tsuda: To me, in some ways, Kareshi Kanojo is actually the pendant to Hunter x Hunter. Kare Kano runs in the “sister magazine” of the Banzai!, an anthology full of rather stupid shôjo. Chapter 3 of Kare Kano deals with Arima’s past for the first time, and that’s when I felt like this manga is better than your typical highschool shôjo.

Notes about chapter 19: What a futile thing democracy is!

Majority choices… yes, this highly interesting matter is also subject in my favourite anime Kino no Tabi. Simple democracy effectively does not create a unity, but divides people! The reason why democracy nowadays works, while Hobbes (for instance), considering the situation at his time, did not believe in it, is what I would call “modernization of democracy” or what Milkmaster would call “free democracy”. A civilization has to mature enough to be tolerant towards minorities…

Notes about chapter 20: Psychology of the logic

Jan-ken-pon, oh my, the japanese name for this game is the ugliest I have ever heard. But that’s not the subject here: The psychology stuff about what you tend to use is interesting… this is the psychology of people who think logically and intuitively at the same time!

Notes about chapter 22: Geniuses?

Another time, the mangaka chose – I mentioned it already, seemingly dumb – Gon to be the one with the brilliant idea who saved everybody, while they were about to split up. In fact, he chose to ‘cheat’. I have always been a little bit annoyed by mangaka who create a stupid and mindless protagonist… but who shows incredible intelligence when it comes to a crisis. It always appeared like a marketing strategy in order to make the dumb masses, aka the readers, identify themselves with the dumbness of the protagonist – while being able to feel special and intelligent at the same time.
Later, I understood that highly intelligent people *really* are like that: They think so differently that it seems stupid, but in difficult times, it’s these people who came up with original ideas.
The only bad side effect of this revelation is that a seemingly stupid person doesn’t automatically have hidden talents that just do not show. MOST people really are stupid.

In fact, I have mentioned a lot of subjects that are pretty important to me, but didn’t talk much about it… I’m sorry. If I have time, I will definitely add more to the democracy point.

Popetown Ep.1

Hm, well, it’s not an anime, but a cartoon… and I liked it *g*

To be honest I was switching between PC and TV so I didn’t follow the whole story, but from what I have seen so far, I can’t understand all the tam-tam about it. What’s so incredibly shocking about this series? It’s not ‘that’ funny, but not that provocative either. A typical MTV cartoon if you ask me. For some reason, I like the animation and the way the pope moves XD So I’d love to follow this series further (which isn’t sure because it’s likely for MTV Germany to stop showing it if the reactions are poor.)

Is there really nobody who watches this? O_o

Short Cuts – Another jazz rhapsody

Short Cuts

I don’t know much what this movie is about yet, but I love it already. After watching Gosford Park and 20 minutes of this movie, I think I know a bit mor what Altman movies are about… and I love them like this. It basically is a collage of portraits of people… I love it.

Somehow I think it might be interesting to try to compare this movie to Citizen Kane. They both are very sociocritical, well, not even really critical, just… an overview of society. Hm, now I could start to write an interesting and deep interpretation of both movies. But I’m too lazy for that, sorry XD

By the way, I know already that I like Gosford Park more. But only because I prefer the 1920’s England over L.A. at the end of the century. Somehow I believe a lot of things have changed since the 1990’s…

To me, the highlight of the whole movie is the dispute between Ralph and Marian. Wow, it might have happened to me, I was like… wow. It immediately made the movie a lot better. Julianne Moore and that guy were perfect in that role. This is how good actors get angry.

Of course the “other” jazz rhapsody I mean is Magnolia, a movie which I totally hate. I have read a few websites recommending Magnolia to people who like Short Cuts, but to me, it’s two totally different movies. Of course there’s also Julianne Moore in Magnolia, it’s both movies about different people’s lifes, but somehow I think Short Cuts is a lot more… real. Magnolia was just crazy, nothing more. Oh, and Magnolia is a lot about love, Short Cuts is about lifes that include love and feelings.

Oh my god, MASH is an Altman movie? Okay, I understand, I really have to watch it.

PS. I want to play cello as well.
PPS. These kinds of movies make you think your boyfriend cheats on you. Really, it’s funny, satiric and all, but showing human’s egoistic, hypocritical and dark sides is just… depressing.

Sh…sh…sh…

After watching Paranoia Agent, 9 episodes of Mushishi and 8 episodes of Jigoku Shôjo, I have finally noticed that the “sh” sound in japanese is totally different to the “sh” sound in english or the “sch” sound in german (well in Paranoia Agent, they talk about “Shônen Bat” the whole time, in Mushishi about the “mushi” and in Jigoku Shôjo they talk about… Jigoku Shôjo!). In fact it’s more a thing between the german “sch” and “ch”, on top of that, there is a very little “i” in the sound, so that it’s really more “syôjo” than “shôjo”. So basically it’s very easy to pronounce “mushi” (like “moooo~shi~” with the japanese “sh”) without letting it sound like the german “M*sch*” (argh…) Wow. I’m shocked that it took me so long to figure it out.

Oh by the way, I absolutely love this kinds of classic lolita dresses. I just discovered this one today:
Juliette et Justine dress (this girl wants 120$ for the replica of a dress with such an ugly colour! I wonder if anyone would want it *cough*)
I love the cut of the dress. It fits people like me who have no bust whatsoever and it makes a slim figure since it’s waisted *___*
To give you an idea what I mean, this is my all-time-favourite dress:
Mary Magdalene dress
Colour, cut, fabric, it’s just perfect *__*

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane

Currently in the “rant” category. Who knows, maybe I will want to watch more in the next time so that I will include a “movies” category.

This is by far the most tiring movie to watch but I was so curious about what actually is so good about this movie that I’ve stuck to it. I really want to go to sleep now but I feel that I should comment on this great movie a little bit more. First of all, I have to say that I preferred “To be or not to be” over this movie – it was a lot more fun to watch, and in some ways I even think it is better done. I watched “To be or not to be” 2 days ago, and it looks like I’m more into fun movies right now, although both of them are, in some ways, sociocritical.

So in some ways, I have to admit that I did not enjoy the movie. Watching it is like… reading Tolstoi. You really think it is unbelievably good, but you can’t feel it. I adore the cinematography of this movie (and the way the story was told, with all those time gaps and flashbacks), definitely, but I hate the storyline. There was no psychological analysis whatsoever, there was no attempt to make any of those characters interesting except for Kane, who – to me – rather looked like a nobody who’s unable to love and nothing more. I expected a deeper insight of Kane and/or into the society that surrounds him… or the way he actually became that successful he was.

But I have to say that I was impressed how big the impact on me was when I saw the end. 30 seconds before it ended, I thought it was over and that “Rosebud” really doesn’t mean anything. That might have been possible too: A life is too complex to be explained with one only word. But there was an explanation, and that explanation was just absolutely gorgeous. It saved the whole movie – at least in my eyes. From “Hm, pretty nice, nothing spectacular” to “Oh, wow.”

Tagged by Puffel™!

I’m ranting more and more… oh well. I will probably watch an anime today as well ^^ (And oh by the way, I updated my wishlist *g* I took out what I have already and added a PSP and a kimono ^^)

Name 5 of life’s simple pleasures that you like the most. Try to be creative and original and not to use things that someone else has already used. Tag 5 people on your list.
5 people? Do I even talk to that many people? *hrrr*

1. Having sex with the beloved person. Sorry for not being creative, but this is the non plus ultra. Point à la ligne.
2. Reading/Hearing/Seeing a creative product dedicated to me. What I consider a creative product is obviously up to me. (I’ve never got a plain love letter, by the way.)
3. Chai tea, my parents’ dumplings and chinese, korean and polish sweets (candy, chocolates, caramel… awww~~ *____________*)… well, good food is the most simple pleasure for me that exists *g*
4. Suddenly get a letter, an e-mail or something else from a person I like a lot, but lost contact to
5. Stay up the whole night for whatever reason, as long as it is a good reason (aside from the most obvious one: long parties, good online conversations, staying overnight at a friend’s house etc.)

Hm… who should I tag? Really, there isn’t anyone.
1. Carl wouldn’t do this kind of test.
2. Shi~chan doesn’t have a blog.
3. KingFish isn’t even reading my blog.
4. adventurer_killy surely doesn’t even know my blog.
5. Isochinolin and Bittersweet are apparently never online. (And don’t know my blog. They don’t watch animes anyways.)
6. I hope nobody of ‘these’ people would read my blog.

Continue reading “Tagged by Puffel™!”

A little picture

Recently, I found this picture on my harddisk again… *~* This was our hotel room when we spent a few days in Cracow. Aaa~h, I want to go on vacations again~ XD

Krakau