Just got the iPhone app for livejournal. Seems like there is an app for everything; too bad there aren't any that are good. I'm looking for a good app to study kanji. Preferrably one where I can write them and that has quizzes. I heard that kaniibox, the facebook app, is coming to iPhone. Can't wait.

I just discovered ROOKIES(the jdrama) it's been a long time since I've found a drama I actually want to watch. I just watch he first two or so episodes of everything and then forget to wwtch the rest recently. I may actually finish mr brain though. Big fan of KimTaku but I slightly hate Haruka and her bad acting so I guess it all works out.

One more week of summer school... Taking summer classes was a mistake and taking biology was a bigger mistake. That's why right now I'm at my school library (where I've been for at least four
hours a day for the last month) wasting away, trying to read the giant bio textbook but playing with my iPod instead.

Sorry I haven't been updating my blog recently everyone I'll try to do it more often :P

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

     Hey everyone!
      How's the midseason treating you? I quickly watched all the dramas I that seemed worth watching after I finished subbing Zeni Geba. Can't seem to find anything else that's decent... I heard Kekkon Dekinai Otoko is good but I couldn't get into it...
      Instead I've been catching up on my anime action. Most of the time I just ignore anime because of series such as Lucky Star that I'll leave unnamed. Good anime still exist though!

Trailer (This was tough to find)
　　The last week and a half were spent watching Darker Than Black, another beautiful Bones anime. This is such a good show! But even more interesting is the world it's set in. The giant wall blocking out the unknown, 契約者、and dolls force you to watch episodes one after another. What they never realized making this was they made some of the best superhero characters. Admittedly, they're not heroes, but they're still cool! The coolest one had to be the kid who could make his hand and fingerprints explode. It doesn't get more creative than that. The main character, Hei aka Lei Shun Sheng, is a Chinese foreign exchange student... on the surface. Underneath he's the badass Black Grim Reaper 黒死神. His only power is to electrocute people so its definitely not the coolest, but he's a great character overall. Also the Frenchmen who could freeze things was a strong character. Killing a room of people with a bottle of Jack Daniels is a perfect definition of going out in style.
      All in all, this series could be better; the episodes are a more serialized style with two episode side stories instead of one continuous story. Even so each is entertaining so it's worth watching. The soundtrack is by Yoko Kanno who did Kingdom Hearts. There are some truly beautiful tracks in there. The vocab is really difficult since it's SF. I had to refer to subs a lot.
      So after this I can't find another show to watch! I want something completed; sucks to start something midseason.
      Soul Eater ended yesterday; a fitting ending for the show. It really had a decline after episode 25 or so. Just like Death Note. The problem was for the first half of the series Crona was the bad guy. He was intriguing! Hardly ever showing up but always hinting at some dark, demented past when he did. Unfortunately the demon god wasn't nearly as interesting. There wasn't a good enough reason for him engulfing the world in fear. Crona just didn't know how to deal with things. I can't wait to see more voice work from Soul Eater's voice actor. He plays Roxas on KH so I'm going to have to download the DS game. Miyano Mamoru also plays Death the Kid. I fell in love with his voice in Death Note, but this role didn't cut it as much this time. I loved the slight twist in the end where the demon god asks Maka, "You think I'm a demon?" Oops, never thought that it wasn't just a title, eh?

This show is written by the person that made Ghost in the Shell which I hear is good and more importantly the character design is being done by Umino Chika. It's plainly obvious when you look at the characters... Check this out:
Eden of the EastHoney and Clover - Morita and Yamada

I thought I would have this up way earlier but spring break destroyed my schedule. So did Halo 3.

The translation was a little difficult when Futaro's dad is talking. Should be mostly accurate though.

Also the song game in this episode is played by taking the last character in a line and making a new sentence from it. It's called Shiritori Utagassen. Yes, the same as Kohaku Utagassen. Shiritori means like, 'take the end'. Actually your shiri is your ass \^o^/
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I found a new favorite drama! Actually it's not quite a drama...

Yeah, Honey and Clover!
I saw this once when I first started learning Japanese so it's been just enough time for me to completely forget it.
It's not your average anime; it's more like a animated Jdrama. The story if about 5 friends and their friendships and journey through school and to find themselves. Each one of the characters is extremely deep.
Hanamoto Hagumi, or Hagu, is who the show seems centered around. She is a shy girl who, at the age of 18 at the start of the show, still looks like a child. She doesn't look like a child in the anime 'lolita' style way though.(Has anyone read Lolita anyway? It'll make you never use the word again.) She actually just looks like a kid. Hanamoto Hagumi was brought to her uncle's art school in Tokyo because her unbelievable talent was rotting away in the co
untryside. The 'main character', Takemoto, falls in love with her the moment they meet.
Takemoto is arguable the main character of the show. He narrates the beginning of every episode, and the show seems a little more focused on him. Takemoto is the most realistic character I've ever seen. He's a testament to all lost souls out there trying to find what they want to do with their life. If there's anything I don't like about him it's how much he reminds me of myself. A lot of people would agree.
Morita Shinobu is the comic relief of the show. He's quite an mysterious character with a passion for money. Also, he is quite talented at art. In the first episode he shows up out of the blue back at his apartment after being gone for two weeks straight. He brings back a mountain of croquettes　instead of real food even though he has a stack of cash in his back pocket. He then tells Takemoto to wake him up for class the next day or else he'll have to repeat the year... Making it his seventh year in school. The problem is he never wakes up for at least 48 hours after returning from his mysterious trips.
Yamada is the other girl in the main cast. She makes pottery and is called Iron Lady by her classmates. She's famous for kicking ass on campus. She is completely in love with Mayama but, unfortunately, he only loves her as a friend. Her cooking skills are breathtaking.
Mayama, Yamada's crush, is probably the oldest one in the group. The "responsible one" you might say. He had fallen in love with an older woman he works with and practically stalks her. Unfortunately, the woman is a widow and is still grieving for her late husband. Because of this woman he can't love Yamada.

That's the gist of the story. There are 4 versions to see it in:
Manga - I looked at a page once and there were kanji I didn't know scribbled all over the pages so I quickly put it down. It's even a little difficult to read in English. I checked it out again the other day and it didn't seem impossible. Still I haven't studied kanji in a while now. I'm planning on this as my next manga purchase. I wonder how many volumes I could get for 40 bucks...
Drama - No. This is the worst of all the adaptions. 11 or so episodes isn't even close enough to capture the relationships of the main characters. There are <strike>good</strike> popular actors in it though. They completely skipped a few characters' side stories. Hagu is played by the girl from Ruri no Shima and at 15 years old she still seems too old to play Hagu. I think it's her height.
Movie - Can't really remember it, but it seemed to leave a good impression. Hagu is played by Aoi Yuu who is shockingly beautiful. She seems too old but at least she's the right height.
Anime - Recommended above all others. The voice acting is superb. The music really helps amplify the emotions of the show. At two seasons and two specials it's really long. Really helps you feel close to the main characters. It's an anime but then it isn't. There aren't any of the cliche drawing styles unless they are there on purpose. (Making fun of them.) It was subbed by Solar Fansubs. They did such a fantastic job with it. I kept being suprised at how well they were able to word some things, and I even plagerized a few phrases for this weeks episode of Zeni Geba. They even went as far as translating the beginning and ending credits! Wow.
I can't think of a single complaint for this show. Even the credits' songs are amazing. I'm listening to them on my iPod right now!
If this hasn't convinced you to watch the anime check out the review at Animenewsnetwork: www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/honey-and-clover
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I found out how to get FREE XBOX LIVE. Simply make a new LIVE account. You only get a month free then you have to make a new account but at least you get to play online. My entire week has been sucked away by Halo 3 and now I just found out I can play ranked matches without the DLC you have to pay for.

I don't know if I'll be subbing anything next season. All the halfway decent dramas have good teams doing them already. I'm planning on asking Girigiri fansubs if they need help with the new Maki drama. Other than that I was thinking about subbing the movie Paco and the Magical Picture Book. It's made by my favorite Japanese director and has a lot of good actors. It's a really beautiful movie. If you can understand a decent amount of Japanese please check it out.
 
Oh right. Congratulations Cartoon Kat-tun on 100 episodes. You're still dead to me for changing format. The old show was so interesting!

There was a few difficult parts to translate this time so I thought I'd share my notes so you can improve your Japanese.
1. The line where Futaro's dad say's 「ネタは握っているしな」 I translated it to what I did because of this dictionary definition:
[ネタ」(2)証拠。また、証拠ie 。「―があがる」
Since it's in katakana I don't know for sure what he was saying, but at least that's the jist of it.
2. 「伸びしろ」
I dunno you might hear this someday... maybe.
3. I'm pretty sure translating "Geba" in one word is impossible, so I'm going to explain it a little...
Goo Dictionary:
"Zenigeba":
俗に，金銭への強い執着を揶揄(やゆ)していう語。
〔「ゲバ」は武装闘争の意のゲバルトの略。ジョージ秋山の同名の漫画以来，用いられるようになった〕

"Geba" or "Gewalt" (taken from Hatena Keyword):
暴力行為。ドイツ語 Gewalt に由来する。60年代当時流行した左派政治運動に参加した学生の隠語で、国家に対する実力闘争を指す。
Acts of violence. Came from the German word 'Gewalt'. A jargon used by students involved in the left wing political movement in the 60s, indicating physical warfare or usage of arms and weapons against the nation.

It could also be retranslated to "Money-centric", "Money Lunatic", "Money Maniac". None of them quite get it right though..
Thanks annoymous friend for helping me research this.

- I THINK the part that has a lot of economic/business terms is correct. At first I didn't understand the terms in Japanese or English so I can't be positive it's correct. I tried hard to translate it accurately so hopefully it's at least close.
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Time for the weekly real life post.

My JPN class has pretty much finished studying keigo for now. It's a shame because I never got good at speaking it :(
On Monday I have speaking test in my teacher's office. I'm not nervous yet, but I bet I will be. I have to answer basic questions based on pictures and various other questions, then I have to either introduce myself or someone(who?) in keigo. I'm definitely going to practice for this. On speaking tests we usually have to describe something such as our houses, etc. Even though I usually end up doing well, everything I say is a complete lie (haha). Basically I just say what ever comes into my head and don't mess up the grammar. I wonder what I'd say if I was asked a question about something I said...?

I'm watching Welcome to the NHK for the 4th(!) time. I really recommend it. Sato is a great character. If you can watch the Eng dub check it out. Sato's voice is a lot closer to what you'd imagine someone like him to sound like. Unfortunatly Misaki's voice isn't that good. The soundtrack is soo good. I have it on my iPod!
Oyasumi fansubbed it and did a fantastic job on it, soo　ぜひ、ご覧になってください。

Lost Odyssey is great. I'm on disc 4 and the story is still as strong as ever. It's like Final Fantasy 10 with better graphics. The FMVs are about the same though.

Have you seen 20th Century Boys yet? I'm searching for a copy of the dvd or an iso so I can show it to friends. It's that good.

I need to find a new drama to watch. Any recommendations? I've watch most of the good ones. I watched the first episode of Akai Ito, but...
Also I don't really like the main character in Kiina... or serialized dramas like that. I like the story to just continue.

Soul Eater is almost over! Any recommendations for a new weekly anime? I'm also watching Skip Beat(it's great) so any kind of anime is fine.

The pictures with the numbers at the bottom won't load and just gives me a failure logo. (an X or a broken piece of paper. I'll load a picture next time I get on my pc.)