Secret Garden

Trailer (Sorry, I couldn't find any with subs):



Cast:

* Hyun Bin as Kim Joo Won
* Ha Ji Won as Gil Ra Im
* Yoon Sang Hyun as Choi Woo Young / Oska (Joo Won's cousin)
* Kim Sa Rang as Yoon Seul
* Lee Philip as Im Jong Soo
* Lee Jong Suk as Han Tae Ssun
* Yoo In Na as Im Ah Young
* Kim Ji Sook as Moon Yeon Hong
* Park Joon Geum as Moon Boon Hong
* Kim Sung Oh as Kim Sung Woo (Joo Won's secretary)
* Choi Yoon So as Kim Hee Won (Joo Won's sister)
* Kim Sung Kyum as Moon Chang Soo
* Lee Byung Joon as Park Bong Ho
* Sung Byung Sook as Park Bong Hee
* Yoon Gi Won as Choi Dong Kyu
* Yoo Seo Jin as Lee Ji Hyun
* Kim Gun as Yoo Jong Heon
* Baek Seung Hee as Park Chae Rin
* Kim Dong Gyoon as director
* Kim Mi Kyung as guest house ahjumma
* Song Yoon Ah as herself (cameo)
* Lee Joon Hyuk as himself (cameo, epi. 8)
* Beige (베이지) (cameo)
* Baek Ji Young as herself (cameo, ep 13)
* Han Ye Won as Cherry (cameo, ep 15)
* Son Ye Jin as herself (cameo, ep 20)
* Kang Chan Yang (강찬양)
* Jang Seo Won (장서원)
* Kim Sung Hoon

Summary:

Meet Kim Joo-Won, an arrogant and ignorant rich young man who is going to become the successor of one of the largest shopping malls in Korea. Then there is Kil Ra-Im, a poor and hard working young woman aspiring to be a great stunt woman in the film industry. Through some weird understanding, the two met Kim Joo-Won fell in love with Kil Ra-Im who wants nothing to do with him. Little did the two know that their faith had been set long before their meeting and that they were meant for each other.

Review:

At first I thought "Secret Garden was just going to be some cheesy love story where the rich guy fell in love with the poor girl and they'll eventually conquer all and live happily ever after. Wrong! Although the main plot is based upon that cheesy love story, the writers added many elements that would give the story a new twist.

First of all, there are supernatural factors involved. I would tell you more about this but it would spoil the story. But trust me! It made the story very interesting. Second, the writers did an amazing job with the creation of many colorful and interesting characters. As in most cases of rich spoiled characters, they are ignorant and arrogant. However, Kim Joo-Won's ignorance and stubbornness was waaaay out of my expected range lol. Even I was was surprised at how serious his prince complex was!

Overall, This series did a very good job in taking a clique plotline and making it more interesting. It was able to keep me guessing and stick to the series. Noe to mention the series also had a very beautiful soundtrack! I totally reccomand it!

That Woman- Baek Ji Young

Prince of Tennis

Summary:

"Prince of Tennis" is a story of growth and competition revolving around the students of Seigaku Middle School and their rookie star player, Echizen Ryoma. Seigaku is famous for their tennis team which had made it to the nationals many times in the past. Ryoma is a first year that just entered the tennis team. Within the first day of entering, he managed to piss off all the upperclassmen with his nonchalant attitude and his superior skills in tennis. Beating all of his upperclassmen during the placement matches, he becomes their rookie star player and join Seigaku's fight to win first in the nationals.

Review:

I've loved "Prince of Tennis" since it first came out in 2001! I read it every time a new chapter was translated and, like many people in Asia, became interested in the sport and joined the tennis team. After I joined the team I became so busy with practice and school that I stopped reading the manga (I played 1st for doubles btw)! Since I was in the midst of my sports manga and anime phase, I decided to check out "Prince of Tennis" again. It turns out that the first manga series ended a while ago and now Konomi sensei is working on the second series which revolves around all the middle school team banding together to fight the high school teams at tennis camp.

After finishing the manga series, I found that after so long, it is still an awesome series! Konomi sensei's art became very awesome! It's so amazing that he could come up with so many different characters for the series and each of them so unique! Also, Konomi sensei also did an awesome job on all the different tennis styles and techniques for each tennis player. Even though most of the techniques became sort of physically impossible after the middle of the series, it was still very creative and it gave me a good laugh!

I realized after reading up to the latest update for the new manga series, I still want more of Tenipuri! I started looking up fanbooks and am watching the anime series right now. From the fanbooks I was able to learn many interesting facts about the characters lol. For fan service, Konomi sensei also put out a couple of baby pictures of the characters. Here are the ones I have managed to find:

Hyotei's Atobe Keigo


St. Rudolph's Mizuki Hajime


Rikkaidai's Yagyuu Hiroshi


Higa's Tanishi Kei


Shitenhouji's Oshitari Kenya


and finally, our Seigaku star, Echizen Ryoma


I've been looking all over to collect these "Premium photos". If anyone of you come across these pictures of other characters or of better quality please send me the link!!!

Well, I hope I've said enough about "Prince of Tennis" to strike your interest! As usual, I'll end this post with some Tenipuri anime openings!

Future- HIRO-X


Driving Myself- HIRO-X


Make You Free- Kimeru


Long Way- Ikuo


Fly High, Sky High- Toshihiko Matsunaga


Shining- Yuki Shirai


I LOVE THIS ONE!!!!
Dream Beliver- Osami Masaki

Eyeshield 21

Summary:

Eyeshield 21 is a manga revolving around high school students from the American Football club. Kobayakawa Sena is a freshmen that had always been bullied all his life. He decided to join the American Football Club as a secretary because they didn't have enough people and secretary was a job that allowed him to be involved in the club without having to actually participate in this violent sport. However, Sena's talent for being a runner was discovered by the captain, Hiruma Youichi. Infamous for using blackmailing and evil schemes to get what he wants, Hiruma got Sena to play under the code name of "Eyeshield 21" and not reveal his actual identity. As they journey forth to their goal of playing in the Christmas Bowl, they meet more friends, enemies, and grew tremendously in football and in life.

Review:

EYESHIELD 21 WAS AWESOME!!!! I loved it so much that I read the whole 333 chapters over the weekend! It was very much like you average sports manga in that it focused on game play, technicalities of football, and learning to never give up no matter how hard things are. Although I'm not a football fan, this manga's humor and characters kept me wanting more and more. I find myself growing anxious as the clock in the manga began to run out and I'm constantly cursing my internet to be faster as if the clock in the manga would change with real time lol. I cheered and even cried with the team when they meet defeat. I haven't finished Prince of Tennis but I think if you liked Slam Dunk then you would probably like Eyeshield 21 as well. Besides manga, Eyeshield 21 is also an anime series. So if your too lazy to read you can always watch it. It might be more interesting that way since this is a sports manga and it would be easier to see on screen.

At first the manga started off with drawings that were not very appealing. However this is common in many manga when you first read it. Art requires practice to improve after all. Later on in the series, the mangaka succeeds in putting more eye candies into the series. Even, Sena and Shin who looked very rough in the beginning looked cute and sexy later on! ;) I especially like Kakei Shun of the Kyoshin Poseidons. The dude possesses these sexy eyes that the mangaka described as "smoldering". Here is Kakei-kun!

From left to right: Mizumachi Kengo, Kakei Shun, Kobayakawa Sena, Hiruma Youichi, and Seijuro Shin


Have you seen or read Eyeshield 21? If so, what did you think about it?

Seigi no Mikata

Trailer (Not very informative but it's the only one I could find...):


Cast:
* Shida Mirai as Nakata Yoko
- Konno Moeka (紺野萌花) as young Yoko
* Yamada Yu as Nakata Makiko
- Natsui Runa as young Makiko
* Mukai Osamu as Yoshikawa Naoki
* Hongo Kanata as Okamoto Riku
* Takizawa Saori as Yamashita Midori
* Irie Jingi as Komori Taichi (Jumbo)
* Nishiuchi Mariya (西内まりや) as Moriyama Chika
* Nakamura Shizuka (中村静香) as Komatsu Kyoko
* Shimura Rena (志村玲那) as Shimazaki Mai
* Ishii Mieko (石井美絵子) as Horita Arisa
* Sano Shiro as Nakata Goro
* Tanaka Yoshiko as Nakata Haruko
* Tokui Yuu as Nogami Koichiro
* Hiraizumi Sei as Yoshikawa Katsuo
* Yamaguchi Izumi (山口いづみ) as Yoshikawa Satomi

Summary:

Nakata Yoko is a first year high schooler whose life is a living hell ruled by her older sister Nakata Makiko. For as long as Yoko can remember, her sister had always used her as a slave, bullied her, and used her as a scapegoat for everything in life. However, due to some incredible luck, no matter how awful her sister is, no one seems to notice it except for Yoko. Infact, everything her sister does turns into a good deed for everyone around her, earning her the respectable title of "Seigi no mikata", an Ally of Justice.

Review:

I just finished "Seigi no Mikata" yesterday and it left me wanting more. Although the drama is a repetition of day to day events revolving around the absurd things that Makiko demands from Yoko, it kept me wanting more because it was very funny to see the things Makiko do lol. She was absolutely ridiculous and funny. As a big sister myself, I know I've done my share of bullying and blackmailing to my own brother (it was all harmless little jokes). But Makiko is like the master of bullying. I think if I was her sister I would've ran away from home long ago lol.

I've seen Yamada Yu play other roles before but this is the first time I've seen her play a selfish bitch who doesn't even know she's selfish. She does a very good job! Props to her lol. As for Shida Mirai, she is just absolutely adorable! She a tiny actress bursting with talent! I've seen her act in "Hammer Session" but didn't really take notice of her because her role, although she was one of the main cast, didn't require very much. But seeing her in this drama put her in a new light in my eyes. I definitely look forward to seeing more of her work.

This drama is absolutely comical and it's great for people who don't have time to finish the whole series at once because they always finish one plot before the episode ends (with the exception of the last two). I hope you all will enjoy it as much as I did.

Theme song:
Okumura Hatsune - Honto wa ne

Tumbling

Official Trailer:


This is a fan made trailer but I thought it was really good and the only one with English subtitles. So here it is!


Cast:
* Yamamoto Yusuke as Azuma Wataru
* Seto Koji as Takenaka Yuta
* Miura Shohei as Tsukimori Ryosuke
* Daito Shunsuke as Kiyama Ryuichiro
* Nishijima Takahiro as Hino Tetsuya
* Tomiura Satoshi as Tsuchiya Satoshi
* Yanagishita Tomo as Mizusawa Taku
* Kaku Kento as Nippori Keiji
* Tamoto Soran as Kaneko Atsushi
* Okamoto Azusa as Satonaka Mari
* Okamoto Rei as Asakura Aoi
* Isaka Tatsuya as Akabane Reiji
* Nakadoi Hiroki as Tsurumi Akihiko
* Sato Jiro as Tashiro Shigeo
* Kuninaka Ryoko as Ezaki Shoko
* AKIRA as Kashiwagi Yutaka
* Otsuka Nene as Azuma Natsuko
* Ise Mihato as Sasaki Noriko
* Okihara Issei as Konno Toru
* Iriki Mari as Nakao Haruka
* Kawashima Kenta as Shiramine Kazuhiko

Summary:

Tumbling is a Japanese drama about these high school boys forming a male gymnastics team and striving for their dreams of winning the high school competition. 3rd year high school student Takenaka Yuta is the captain of the male rhythmic sports gymnastics club. It has been his dream to enter the high school competitions and get to the finals since middle school. However that dream was never achieved because they never had enough people to perform in the competitions (they need at least 6 people).

3rd year Azuma Wataru is a infamous delinquent who had spent all his high school years fighting and laying off his studies. In order to graduate, he has to either take extra lessons or join club activities. In order to impress the girl he like (who was in the female gymnastics club), he decided to join the male rhythmic sports gymnastics club.

With Wataru's entrance to the club, the delinquents of the high school began to join the club one by one. Before they knew it, the boys were able to enter competitions. However, because of the history of these delinquents, the club is in constant danger of being closed down. The drama, follows the progress of this club as they enter competitions and overcome all difficulties.

Review:

I really liked this drama. It has a serious plot of athletes overcoming difficulties to pursue their dreams and it contains tons of humor and lessons about life and friends. It was also very amazing to see all the routines they performed! I'm not exactly sure but it looked like the routines were actually done by the actors, who are not gymnasts. Every time they perform new routines I would drop everything I was doing just to focus on their performance. It made me hold my breath and clap like crazy when they were done. It was also this drama that restarted my interest of watching and reading sports related dramas and manga. There are also many eye candy actors in this drama! I give this drama 5/5 stars! You should all watch it if you have time!

In addition to good plot, this drama also has a very nice theme song:
Honey L Days- Manazashi

Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale

Over winter break, Steam was having its annual Christmas sale on games. So I decided to try out this game that my friends have been asking me to get. "Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale" is a game in which you play a young girl, Recette, and run a shop to try to pay off the debt that your father left behind. You have one week to pay off a certain amount of debt, of which the amount increases more than double every week. In order to successfully run the shop, you must learn to negotiate, adventure, and take advantage of the news you hear.

After finishing the main part of this game (paying off the debt), I have to say: I am absolutely in love with this game! I have always liked playing management games like "Cake Mania" or "Sim City" and such. This game not only allows you to sell stuff, it also allows you to learn to bargain with your customers (whose price limit changes as you get on their good side), learn about each character, and fight monster to get items for your shop! I loved the game so much that I started keeping an excel sheet on my customers to keep track of sales lol.

If you like management games, I would say this is the game for you. I hope you all have fun! Capitalism, ho!

Tegami Bachi 1 and 2

The first thing about Tegami Bachi that caught my eye was the beautiful art style of this manga. I've been wanting to read the manga since last year but I've been so busy with everything that it was forgotten.Since I'm out of school right now, I've had a lot of time to watch anime! So recently I finished Tegami Bachi season 1. After watching the first season of the anime though, I was a bit disappointed.

Tegami Bachi is a story revolving around a young boy, Lag Seeing, who strives to be the best Letter Bee. Letter Bees are mail delivery people who risk their lives fighting monsters called Gaichuus and traveling endlessly to make sure the hearts within the letters can be delivered to their destination. During the course of the story, Lag finds out many secrets of the government, why his mother was taken from him, and possibly what he really is.

First Season OP:



The beginning of the anime was very much like the manga and had a very captivating story that makes the readers want more. But in most of the season was filled with fillers and I almost gave up watching. Luckily, during the last few episodes, the story picked up it's speed again and leaves a cliffhanger for the second season, Tegami Bachi: Reverse.

Second Season OP:


The second season was a lot more exciting than the first season in that it revealed many secrets regarding the anti government organization Reverse and the birth of Niche, Lag's Dingo. Currently, the second season is still on-going on a weekly basis.

Tegami Bachi is full of all kinds of emotions. I found myself crying with Lag (who is a giant crybaby) in more than one occasion. Since most of the main characters are children (12-14) they are fill with silly moments. In one recent episode, Lag finally meets the famous Jiggy Pepper, a letter bee who makes express delivery on a motorcycle. Lag and the other boys idolized him so much that they imitated him in a very silly way! XD

Jiggy saying good bye to Lag:


The boys reenacting the scene (Lag pretends to be Jiggy while Conner plays the role of the motorcycle):




Besides all the emotion this anime was able to evoke from me, I was also captivated by all the songs they used for the opening and endings. They were all very soft and lovely and definitely reflected the mood of the anime (plus I've always had a likeing for Suga Shikao's music). All in all, I would reccomend browsing through the first season of the anime, watching the second season, and then reading the manga in addition to get the missing info and the latest bits of the plot. I hope you all will enjoy this series as much as I did! :D

Sengoku Basara 1 and 2

Some of us videogamers might recognize Sengoku Basara as a videogame series revolving the Sengoku Era of feudal Japan. Though I have yet to play any of the games, I've been watching the anime series first and second season. I first heard about this series from an online webpage talking about women of Japan being captivated by this anime series and that it increased Date Masamune (an actual historical figure in the Sengoku Period) popularity with women due to his portrayal in this anime. Curious, I decided to watch the anime to see what it was all about.

OP to first season:


The first season of Sengoku Basara was about our hero's quest to stop Nobunaga Oda's ruthless plans to take over Japan. Within the first 3 minutes of the first episode, I was thoroughly confused by the Date Masamune's character. He rode on a horse that had strange pipes which made it look like a motorcycle. What confused me more was the fact that in between his dialogue in Japanese, he threw out little pieces of English like "Let's party!" or "Put your guns on!" This cracked me up a bit (I thought I accidentally clicked a dubbed version of the anime) prompted me to keep watching the series.

OP to second season:


This season, the heroes band together to fight Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who wants to conquer the land an allow only the strong to live (meaning only warriors and none of the regular citizens). After watching the first season, I immediately wanted to watch more of this series (especially since there where so many bishis in this series). The second season was a bit slower in the movement of the story (most of it was flash back or internal conflicts). But it was still interesting to find out more about the past of Maeda Keiji, who was a character who wanted peace without fighting from the first and second season.

Overall, this series had an interesting story plot and it retold the history of the Sengoku Period (to a very limit degree of accuracy). I loved the characterization of the characters: Date and his biker gang leader role, Sanada with his burning determination, etc. I really loved watching the character interact with each other like Sanada and Takeda. The two of them are like student and teacher. For some odd (and entertaining) reason, Sanada like to run at Takeda while questioning their ways and Takeda would beat him up everytime he answers. I guess everyone has their own way of learning lol.

Have you seen Sengoku Basara? My favorite character is Sanada Yukimura. Who is yours?

CSI: Crime City

I finished my report early last night and decided to check my facebook to see if I had any updates when I came across this new game. A little curious and bored, I decided to give the game a go. As you can probably tell from the title, you play a detective whole goes around solving cases.

Within the first 8 minutes I cracked the first case. There isn't really much detective work to do here and not many options to work with. You click floor tiles until you find a clue. Then you send it off to the lab and let the other people analyze it for you. So basically you just click the floor and watch as the story play out.



As of now I can't really tell if I'm liking this game or not since I've only played it for 8 minutes. But if you have a facebook account and is bored, why not give the game ago. Maybe you can tell me if this game is play worthy or not lol.

Ameba Pico

Moving another post from my other blog over!



I wanna share with everyone a really fun place to meet people around the world: Ameba Pico!

Let's start with a little bit of background. Ameba Pico first started in Japan under a different name- Ameba Pigg. Basically, it is a website where people can make their own characters and interact with each other.

Although Ameba Pico is an American site, there are still many players from all over world. So depending on the timezone, you can meet many foreigners. I myself love to practice my Japanese with the Japanese players. Even though my Japanese isn't that great, the Japanese players were very nice and very patient with me. My buddy list is filled with players from all over the world!

If you have free time and want to make friends online, Ameba Pico is definitely the place to be. I'm usually online around night time and you can find me under the name of Lydie. Hope to see you soon!

MZJ42SRU3GMB

Battle Against Acne 1: Products I have tried

I'm pretty sure a majority of our planet's population have had problems with acne just like I did. Even though it was such a common problem, it didn't make me feel any better that I was going to school with these red bump all over my face. Over the course of many year and trials of different products and routines, I am proud to say I have finally found one that fits my skin type and that my acne is now under control!

I have tried many different types of face wash such as neutrogena, proactive, The Body Shop, and etc. But the one I have found to be most effective is Acnefree's sensitive solution.



After the first week of using this system, I noticed my skin was less oily and there were less break outs. With the continuous use of this product the amount of break outs I had reduced to about once a week! And now I can even use face products that are not specific to acne prone skin! You can find this product online at Target, Amazon, or Walgreen's!

I know that there are many factors that go into the formation of acne and I am no expert on this subject. But this is what I have tried and found to be successful. Stay tune for posts about my daily routines, facial treatment, or other stuff I use to keep my skin healthy and acne free! I hope this was helpful to someone out there! :)

Iron Man

Wanting to avoid studying for my finals as long as possible, I decided to go watch "Iron Man". And after watching the first 20 minutes, I have to say: THIS IS AN AWESOME MOVIE!!!! I was never a big Marvel Comics fan, but after seeing these movies of Marvel Comics, I'm getting more and more intrigued by their story plots. Although it has not gone to the point where I would go and read all of Marvel comics, I have to say that I'm getting pretty close. I get really intrigued by movies that involve technology and violence. So this movie totally suited my taste. I was really amazed by the concept of a suit of iron that is small and compact but still able to withstand such impact and consist of so many weapons and even to FLY!!!! This is totally a movie that I would reccommand to everyone old or young, big or small! GO SEE IT NOW!!!

Air Gear 204 & 205

I checked today and found out that two more chapters of Air Gear had been released this week: 204 and 205. The previous chapters had been about Ikki and Kaze fighting with their ATs. While fighting Ikki, Kaze finally snapped out of his self-blaming for losing Spitfire's regalia and began to fight Ikki without fear.

In chapter 204, the guys who owned the weird cult place decided to just let go of the fact that Ikki and Kaze's battle totally wrecked their place and business. With that, Ikki and Kaze went out to camp to have some male bonding time. >:D

Chapter 205 focuses more on what the enemies have been up to. This chapter confused me so much cause it kept switching back and forth from Sora and Nike Takeuchi. So I wasn't sure who they were talking about half the time. I guess the one in the beginnig is Sora since his legs are gone. Another thing I don't understand is why Sano is on the enemy side now... Wasn't he like obsess with Ikki to the point that he wanted to rape him when Ikki stayed at his house?
Anyways... yea... He's a weirdo anyways. Since he escaped alive, this makes me wonder if Spitfire really died? Nevertheless, Kaze now knows both Sano and Spitfires techniques. I just hope to see more battles soon.

Manga: Nabari no Ou

If you are waiting for another manga or anime episode to come out and have nothing else to entertain you right now, then check out Nabari no Ou at onemanga.com. However, if you already have too many other things to occupy you, then don't start on this manga. Because once you start reading it, you will not be able to stop. Nabari no Ou is another manga about ninjas. However, unlike Naruto, this manga focuses more on plot and characterization instead of actual ninjutsu. The main character Rokujou Miharu is a 14 year old boy who looks cute and exceptionally small for his age as if he is a elementary school kid. But don't let his innocent and indifferent look fool you, he is actually quite the little devil inside.

Although he looks weak and kiddish, don't underestimate him. Miharu is actually the owner of this "wisdom" that every ninja clan is after. The wisdom is infused into his cells and only he can use it!

Look interesting? Go check it out at http://www.onemanga.com/

Recent Manga Favorites

As some of you may know, watching Code Geass is one of my weekly pleasures. But what do I do when I'm waiting for the new episode to come out? I catch-up on my manga reading of course! I read all kinds of manga: shounen, shoujo, fantasy, horror, and (very rarely) shounene-ai. So here are my recent manga picks!

Air Gear

Froz Fruit :)

For the past few weeks, I've been obsessed about this fruit popsicle called "Froz Fruit Gourmet Frozen Fruit Bar" by Blue Bunny. Why am I so crazy about this particular popsicle? They have real chucks of fruits in there and they are totally yummy!!! Although I've only been eating the mango flavor one, I'm pretty sure the other flavors are good too. I just really like how they have frozen fruits in there and I like biting off a chuck and let the ice melt in my mouth until there is only bits of mango left....*drool* I want another one now.... How should I describe it... It's like orgasm in my mouth. LOL.

You can't see the popsicle in this picture cause I already ate it. >:D