Waaaaaaay too many strikethroughs

See all the random strikethrough things in the sidebar/bottom half of the main page? THOSE AREN’T SUPPOSED TO BE THERE, LOL. I honestly don’t know what happened…

Thanks for the 9,000 hits, everyone! Now I just need 10,000… *mildly greedy*

I really need to review something. I am way overdue for another D.Gray-man review (I’m on 53 and I only reviewed up to 36) but I haven’t done any manga in ages. I need to watch more Nanoha StrikerS too…

Did I mention that I missed the Randomness of the Week article for last week, and now I need one for this week? I should have done some Halloween fanart to make up for it… but I’m due for a kiriban in like 4 days, so meh. And I haven’t felt like drawing anything lately. I guess it’s a combination of PMS and school stress. Our internet at school went down a few days last week, so I got behind in my homeschooling curriculum thing, and everything went nuts from there… Plus my volleyball season just ended. It stinks! I feel kinda like Nobara. And I need to review more Crimson Hero.

… holy cow, that was a random paragraph. Did I mention my parents never bothered to test me for ADHD? Probably cause they were scared to see the results…

… huwaaaa, chocolate. Happy Halloween.

D.Gray-man episodes 29-36

With the brilliant Vampire of the Ancient Castle arc now over, one would expect D.Gray-man to gradually get more mediocre; yet these episodes don’t let up much on the quality. Execution is still solid as we head into some more background-developing arcs, and the actual plot continues to slowly unfold. The hunt for Allen’s master helps keep things interesting before a major character gets introduced later.

Saimoe 2007 Quarterfinal Rundown

I’m in shock. What the heck happened this round?!?!?

… uh, I’ll answer my own question by showing the results.

Saimoe 2007- Final Eight Rundown

 S is for shocking.

 A is for amazing… or awful, if you’re a rabid Kagami fan.

 I is for idiot fake voters.

 M is for… uh, moe, duh.

 O is for overly supportive fanboys (‘ZOMG TSUKASA PWNS J00 ALL’)

 E is for ‘Egads, how the heck did Nagi beat Shana?!?’

That, my fellow otaku, spells SAIMOE. With the sixth incarnation of this popularity contest now the final stages, we’re all on the edges of our seats until the 2007 Quarterfinals start on October 26th.

In case you don’t follow Saimoe… read what happened in round 3 and be enlightened.

‘A’ Group: Shana (Shakugan no Shana) versus Nagi (Hayate no Gotoku!)

Winner: Nagi… by 18 votes. I’m still in shock. (vote count: 1086-1068)

‘B’ Group: Konata (Lucky Star) versus Konoka (Negima?!)

Winner: Konata pwned Konoka’s un-moe face off by a vote ratio of 3:2. Konata FTW. (1166-793)

‘C’ Group: Vita versus Nanoha (both from Nanoha StrikerS)

Winner: Nanoha won, making this the second year she’s been in the Final Eight. (797-673) (note the low vote count. perhaps the voting server was down for a few hours? Official rules state that there’s only a rematch if the server’s down for 12 hours or more. Hmmm…)

‘D’ Group: Yuno (Hidamari Sketch) versus Rena (Higurashi)

Winner: Rena won by a surprisingly narrow margin. (1183-1047)

‘E’ Group: Shinku (Rozen Maiden) versus Ayumu (Hayate no Gotoku!)

Winner: Shinku; she’s now the 4th Rozen Maiden character to ever be in the Final Eight. (1249-942)

‘F’ Group: Tsukasa (Lucky Star) versus Suiseiseki (Rozen Maiden)

Winner: Tsukasa avenged her sister!! ^_^ My prediction was wrong. (1741-1559)

‘G’ Group: Sayuri (Kanon) versus Rika (Higurashi)

Winner: Rika-chama~ (939-789) (once again, a surprisingly low vote count…)
‘H’ Group: Suigintou (Rozen Maiden) versus Louise (Zero no Tsukaima)

Winner: Louise!!! Probably the upset of the round, besides Nagi beating Shana. Louise, however, won by a larger margin (25 votes) so cookies to her! (1663-1638)

A/N: to everyone who was expecting the Clannad review… WordPress ate it. It almost ate my D.Gray-man review last week too, so I should have been more careful. I may get it re-typed at some point, but no guarantee, seeing how far behind I am in my writings for zENIME. 

7,000 hits: Colored kiriban

*duh duh DUUUUUUH* RIKA-CHAMA!!! she’s property of the creators of Higurashi, do not sue me >_< The onigiri and kitty are mine, though… ^_^

‘Kay, seriously, thanks for 7,000 hits, everyone! <3 I’ll have more reviews (including Clannad episodes 1 and 2) after I get back from my volleyball tourney. Should be Sunday before you guys see anything from me… :(

Ja ne! ^___^

D.Gray-man ep. 21-28

A/N: From now on, I’m reviewing D.Gray-man episodes in 8-episode blocks. This may seem ridiculous, seeing as some reviewers do a post for every single episode, but I honestly don’t wish to have 64 (or even 16) separate D.Gray-man reviews once the series is finished. Mkay? ^_^

With the dramatic conclusion of the Vampire of the Ancient Castle Arc, this block of D.Gray-man episodes does a great job at… well, everything. The new exorcist is introduced nicely, the plot and background get developed further, and there’s enough lighthearted moments to keep the fangirls happy. Plus we get to see Lavi with his stupid headband off.

Episodes 21-23 end the aforementioned vampire arc, and in all honesty, I wasn’t sorry to see the arc end. Eliade was quite annoying to me, and I hoped that Lavi would be the one to finish her off because I’m obsessive like that. The middle and end of the arc, despite not being what I hoped, are excellent; it’s good to see that they didn’t butcher the manga’s best arc. The end, while being mildly sappy, is satisfyingly tragic. Learning the truth about Eliade and Krory’s respective powers was solidly done as well. The best moment, though, was when Lavi and Allen were screaming ‘Aishiteru!!’ (I love you!!) at a couple of demon plant things in episode 23. If you want to see what I’m talking about, go watch the freaking episode.

DDR nerds, 6,650 hits, writer desired, etc…

You know those guys who blast their ghetto music out their car windows and think they’re so cool? There was 3 nerd guys doing that in my school parking lot earlier, only they were pumpin’ out DDR music. I’m serious. It honestly made my day.

In more relevant news…

+ My 5,000 hit kiriban pic got colored on Monday, and I’ll scan it once I get 7,000 hits. As of this post, I have 6,650.  That gives me a few days to slack off. Also, anyonewho catches m 6,666th hit gets a Halloween pic drawn for them. <3 (If you get reasonably close, you get it too, cause I’m nice like that.)

RotW: Best Manga Artists

I envy people who can draw AND write stories to go with their drawings. Often manga artists are more talented at one than the other; as an artist, I tend to give major cookies to those who can draw expertly. Character development is still more important, but who’ll complain if your characters are drawn well?

Fullmetal Alchemist manga- vol. 3-4

For my review of volumes 1 and 2, click here.

Despite the fact that the anime ended a long time ago, the manga version of Fullmetal Alchemist is still immensely popular all over the world. Action sequences combined with believable characters make this shonen series worthwhile. Unlike many shonen series, the character development in FMA is above and beyond the assorted cliches known to anime fans. Volumes 3 and 4 take this character development to a new level, and even later volumes continue to test the characters as they combat the ‘evil’ they’ve begun to discover.

5,000 hit kiriban (finally)

The funny thing is, I started this before Rika beat Mion in Saimoe. ^___^

Niipaa~ It’s Rika-chama from Higurashi! I dunno if she even likes onigiri much. >_> But whatevs; thanks for 5,000 hits everyone! It means a lot to me that you all stuck through my PMS-y rants, rough reviews and overall opinionatedness. ^__^;;;

I’ll try to color this sometime soon, hopefully before 7,500 hits… yeah, when pigs fly. >_<;;;

By the way, Jenni got a blog. wh00t