well.

I am still rendered speechless.

so i do what i usually do when i dont know how exactly to reply.

I leave it to fester, and do more work so the guilt goes away.

=)

i feel needy. Josei plots are getting into me urgh.

ponder much.

I recently had the most interesting dream. The contents were uncalled for, even with my rather active imagination.

I dreamt of lost friends. I am not on unfriendly terms with them, but everyone kind of lost touch with one another. So dreaming of then was quite a surprisingly turn of events since I had nothing to remind me of them (not even on a seldom basis).

It was in Europe (My guess will be somewhere with plenty of sun, and i thought of Italy), and i happened to chance upon a couple of friends at the hotel which I was about to check into. They were staying there as well, and I remembered going on about how long haven't I met them and it was such a coincidence to meet while overseas, so we all agreed to meet for a meal later. We later met up with more mutual friends (what a coincidence!) at the restaurant. And we all spent time catching up over a good meal.

Strangest thing was, I woke up to a phone alert, which was sent by one my lost friends.

Nice.

from shoujo to josei.

well hasn't it been a few post of manga and anime. and i must say that it doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.

If I have to choose what manga genre attracts me to read, I will have to choose action romance. action cause 'only in anime' you can have all those fancy attacks and adventures in a myriad of realms (more than just new zealand landscapes - move over narnia and lotr. even gaiman doesn't compare.), romance cause deep down inside every lady is a shoujo fanatic.

but after reading shoujo after shoujo (which involves mainly high school girls), one can pretty much predict every subsequent scene. it gets frustrating sometimes, especially the pace. and the setting is kinda getting too young for me - imaging scoffing at some scenes going 'really, how will end up well in real life' while secretly hoping them to overrule your doubts. Cynicism comes with age, so it is about time to head over to josei.

And josei definitely touches on the cynicism which we face. single women getting older, more or less giving up pursuing marriage, work-oriented, and often than not, wondering how to take the next step to work out this monotonous pace of life.

the first josei i read was "Kimi wa Petto", translated to "Tramps Like Us". about a high achieving lady tired of pursuing romance for purity's sake of it, since that way never worked out with her. With no suitors willing to challenge her and fed up with the masculine-oriented work society, she decided to 'adopt' a younger man whom she found on the streets and kept him as her pet. nothing raunchy going on, she treated him like how everyone treats their pet animals - giving him a name, providing the necessary food and clothing and a room to sleep. In return, she talks to him about her troubles and daily events, in which he gives his opinions to. doesnt help much when she finally got herself into a relationship and tried every means to conceal the fact that she has a young man as a pet in the house.

still, the ending did not end up in my favour, but nonetheless a satisfying conclusion. and it won the prestigious best female comic in the early 2000s

and now my current read is "Ane to Kekkon" - "My Sister and Marriage". About a 40yr old single lady contented with spending her quiet life working as a librarian, until and old class mate bumped into her and declared that he love her. This class mate was a quiet-bullied-teen-turned-successful-suave doctor, and a married one even. Married to the daughter of a hospital director, and so happens to looks exactly like our female protagonist. Drama no? You have a reluctant female protagonist who is being relentlessly chased by a doctor who claimed he married because his wife resembled his first love (hence she means nothing to him). Not to mention his wife was not in love with him either, and has an extra-marital affair which he is aware of (but turns a blind eye to it). Solution? Our female protagonist proposed to have their own extra-marital affair, albeit a physcial one only so as not to get too emotionally attached and get her hurt. Our doctor though, is keen on a real relationship. Both have their share of sadness and complications, which makes it so addicting to read. gives me the fuzzy feeling.

only damn thing now is that online scanlations only went as far as chapter 3, while chinese scans hit chapt 15... and stalled for a good couple of months. Adding salt to injury will be that taiwan publishers only managed to churn out book 2 (12 chapters in total), and here in my country, we only have book 1 available now. the author has churn out 4 books so far. URGH.

seiyuu.

you know you become a fan when you watch the particular anime only after you heard that a particular voice actor is in it. even better when you realized that they have a beautiful character vocal range =)

Koyasu Takehito is definitely on my radar all the time. of course hotohori has a lot to do with me enjoying his voice acting, but after that there was aya from weiss... and that gained him a solid following from me. He writes, produces, give concerts and sings in a deep smooth voice. although he is pretty quiet nowadays (a quick check online got me thinking he might be dropping in popularity sigh, and the last character which i enjoyed him in was ranka from ouran high), I picked him back up after watching an ad for a japan domestic airline, in which he narrates (*ear perks up* wait! that is Koyasu's voice!). never underestimate the powers of an inner fangirl. Also, did i mention that he is the most prolific voice actor to date? over 230 roles~~ =) but I kinda want him to stop doing his own stories (because after weiss, everything else pales in comparison. and please no more assassin angst roles, too cliche coming from you) and start picking up nice big roles (you have the fame to demand that much at least) so we can all enjoy your voice again.

Tomokazu Seiki is another favourite, mainly because of his vocal range. Again i knew of him through fy (a really high pitch voice for chichiri), and thanks to koyasu inviting him to be part of weiss, i got to hear his other range - a deeper range for ken's manly, sporty character. And he has a solid singing voice too. Koyasu once said that he has an eye for talent, and that was why he invite Tomokazu into weiss - i couldnt agree more. If Koyasu has the best voice for an adult masculine role (so restrictive), Seiki has the best vocal range from young boys to adults. there are probably animes which he can play double roles for, and people might not even detect it. When i watched a clip of him doing one-man demonstration of a yaoi scene (he did both seme + uke), i was floored. and he is STILL hot commodity right now - at least he is still taking nice roles and awards. (yes, koyasu is never wrong. now if only koyasu can pinpoint his own future...)

Male seiyuu will always catch my eye first (cause girls will always take note of bishounen characters first). But one female seiyuu caught my eye - Megumi Ogata. Unfortunately, it was because she took on plenty of main male roles. I must say that she does not have a voice that is suitable for a female lead, as her voice is too low for a chirpy female. If I have to put a good character description, it will be her role as yukito from css and shinji from eva - gentle, soft spoken mature young males. her females roles however, are more mature and tomboyish (tier harrible from bleach anyone). But her males roles are always lead popular characters. And she recently won an award for her achievements!

now on to someone more current.

Mamoru Miyano. he has both good looks and voice. The first role I heard of him was tamaki from ouran, and he gave the right balance for a main character that is comical, dramatic, yet still commands enough charisma suitable for the lead. His tamaki soundtrack, guilty beauty love, is still in my top 50 most play playlist since 2006 (which neither koyasu nor tomokazu achieved, their weiss soundtrack is a group effort). On the other end of the spectrum, he also voiced light yagami from death note. comparing the characters tamaki and yagami is enough to cement his award status. Unfortunately I am not as anime active as i was, so it kinda stopped there. But i do know that he (though wiki) is still very much sought after and he won awards for nice big roles (of hit anime series). Best part of all was that i discovered an online mini polling - "Mamoru VS Koyasu : who come out tops?" Two giant players, each from their own generation. Being biased (for hotohori) and from the good old anime days (1995s - 2005s), my vote goes to Koyasu. Truthfully I will never be sure unless I watch more of Mamoru's performances. But if people are doing such polls that means he's good enough for the big league.

I want to see the following stuff happening in the future:

- Koyasu receiving some recognition award (He deserves it. other members from weiss got theirs)
- A best anime rival-pairing revival between Koyasu and Midorikawa Hikari. They are legendary.
- Mamoru attending comicon or some equivalent so everyone can make voice requests.
- Koyasu coming over to our local anime convention. For purely selfish reasons. (it's a stretch, since he has not even been to the US conventions)
- i want to at least acknowledge a great female seiyuu in my lifetime. no whiny characters, I dig independent, mature female characters who gets flustered easily. haha.