Shameless Shipping 4 – Roy/Riza

Warning: mild spoilers ahead. No like, no read, or at least don’t highlight.

This is perhaps one of the most recognized/flouted pairings in all of FMA. It’s also the only one I can (in good conscience) support. It honestly makes sense, and there is a great deal of subtle interplay between the characters that seems to support this shipping. (After seeing the end of the movie, I have come to the conclusion that this is the only canonical shipping. EdWin doesn’t work for obvious reasons in the anime; however,

Review: The Twelve Kingdoms

The Twelve Kingdoms by Fuyumi Ono

Warning: Possible spoilers ahead.  No like, no read.

I’m sure we’ve all asked ourselves, what would I do if I were suddenly transported to another world?  What if I had no time to say goodbye?  And what if I couldn’t get back?

All these thoughts become reality for Yoko Nakajima, an ordinary student at a girls’ school in Japan.  Yanked to another world by a man named Keiki, she finds herself abandoned and utterly defenseless.  Stranded in the highlands of a foreign country, she has to find shelter, find out where in the universe she is – because she’s certainly not in Kansas anymore – and try to find help.  The only problem is that world-crossers aren’t exactly welcome on this planet – sometimes, in fact, they’re hunted down.  The question now isn’t finding civilization; it’s finding a civilization that will accept her.

Along the way, Yoko finds out that some things in this world are similar, and somethings are very, very strange.  The people are plagued by demons, and the social structure is very different from the one she is used to.  Her kind – those who crossed the Void Sea – are called kaikyaku, and they are both feared and revered.  Children are not born to their parents; at least, not like we think they are.  And she still has to find out why she was brought to this world in the first place.

Review: Death Note vol. 1&2

Death Note volumes 1 and 2 by Tsugumi Ohba and Takushi Obata

Warning: Mild spoilers ahead. No like, no read. If you don’t care about spoilers, highlight the stuff between the stars.

You know, at one point after watching Gene Shaft at a Boy Scout/Venturing lock-in, I really thought manga and anime writers couldn’t go any further. I thought they’d pushed the limit with all the eugenics and 9:1 woman-to-man ratio and everything. I thought – I hoped, rather – that they wouldn’t do anything else.

I was wrong.

Death Note, a wildly popular manga, first caught my eye in a mention on Ami’s site. However, I did not read it until today, when Nia lent me the first two volumes. I figured, Hey, everyone else seems to like it. It ought to be pretty good.

I was wrong. Well, partly.