Re-reading your favourite manga that you haven’t touched in almost 7 years is like meeting an ex-classmate, or ex-classmates of yours that you haven’t seen for twice or half that time. One part of you wonders if they’ve stayed the same, one part wonders if you’ll recognise them, one part wonders if you’ll be able to talk as casually as you did all those years back, and one part, if you’re thinking about a particular female classmate, wonders if she’s grown up from that adorable girl you had a big crush on back then. My reunion with Love Hina was like that, only with less stiflingly dapper outfit and more pleasant recollection of memories.

softly dreaming, never drunk

The problem with anime references or puns is that they usually fall apart quite miserably when you attempt to throw two or more of them together. It’s the sheer futility of making a Yoko Kanno reference in a Nanoha post title (a Venn diagram would easily illustrate the naivete behind this), or stringing together similarities between a not-so-popular mahou shoujo anime and an extremely famous shounen one (on top of a Narnia parallel) that leaves much to be desired, but I try anyway. If you manage to catch both references in the post title, well, consider yourself to have otaku street cred.

if recent episodes are anything to go by, he’s getting there

Going through a period of chronic exhaustion while forcing myself to write this post hasn’t exactly been pleasant thanks to my lack of knowledge about Claymore itself — but that all fell away when I finally decided to read all 12 volumes of the manga yesterday morning. Fun times.

I came away from the aftermath shaken, not stirred. The clock said 6:00AM. Do I have any regrets about “spoiling” the story now that I know what’s going to happen in the anime? Maybe just a little. As far as I’m concerned, though, it’s all for the best, as it was an enjoyable experience, to say nothing of how it won’t be as hard to write about it from now on. Largely spoiler-free.

not a coincidence, really (click for full size)

I read 19 volumes of it yesterday. It’s nice to revisit what I’ve been proclaiming (to anyone who’ll listen) as the “best shounen series ever”, and by “shounen series” I mean of the fighting type. I went off on a tangent on BATESZI’s poll in his blog about it until I realised he was talking about anime specifically, and I’ve only read the manga for that.

Also, some insight into Darker than Black 09 and 10 after the cut. Questions raised include “is sudo better than Shinsen in subbing?” (protip: the answer is No for quality, a half-hearted Yes for speed), and “what is Hei’s obeisance, anyway?” (the answer might be more obvious than previously thought).

hey guys, I think Lucky Star isn’t that great, yet I’m going to make deadpan posts week after week detailing how funny or unfunny this week’s episode was! and I’m cool that way! I’m also constantly sleep-deprived, and WUI- wait, wrong blog.