Catching up

So this is my first post after moving my former blog, ~ lurking in the shadows ~ (on Blogger, here) to WordPress. I got the idea for it about a week ago, then like 7+ j-pop blogs got deleted from WP so I decided against it, but after Kawaiirrhea figured out what was causing the shutdowns (Pony Canyon downloads), I decided to just go ahead because I don’t have any Pony Canyon downloads on my blog (and as of now I don’t plan on ever having any). I like WordPress better than Blogger, so…
There’s also a new name. I kinda was getting tired of the old name, and since I’m moving this anyway, why not? xD Resonant Blue was the first thing that came to mind…named after Morning Musume’s upcoming single.

As my first post here, I should catch up with everything I’ve missed lately. I’m going to attempt to keep this blog up-to-date, update it much more, and write some posts that have some actual content besides just quick news posts. xD

(my g key’s broken, and while I’m copy-pasting the lowercase g it’s too much trouble to keep copy-pasting the uppercase and then having to go back to the lowercase…so that’s why I might have random fail moments in terms of capitalization)

Kinokuniya purchases

My friend went to NYC for a couple days this week (Wednesday-Friday I think- it was vacation week for the public schools, so she had it off while I was stuck at school) and so while she was there, she picked up a few things from Kinokuniya for me.

At first I was debating what to ask her to buy, I heard somewhere that they have Hello! Project photobooks but she isn’t a Hello! Project fan (she knows what Morning Musume is due to my random ranting, but that’s it) and I didn’t want her to have to ask about those since that would without a doubt be awkward for her. xD I also wanted something Prince of Tennis, but the only specific thing I could think of off the top of my head was the 30.5 illustration book and I didn’t know how expensive that would be…which would be necessary because I had to give her the cash beforehand.
So this is what I ended up with:

[scans] Japanese fashion magazine (or something) KERA vol. 112 (Nov. 2007)

I went to Tokyo Kid yesterday with a $150 gift certificate, and along with some manga and candy, I picked up a Japanese magazine they were selling. Typically they don’t have any Japanese magazines, so I had no idea what this actually was, but Kamiki Aya was on the cover and there was a list of names on the right side of the cover which included Buono!- so I assumed it was a j-pop magazine and immediately bought it.
(Thinking back, if I had bothered to try and read the other stuff on the cover, I probably would have realized that this was like a fashion magazine instead. But then I probably would have bought it anyway because of Buono!, lol. xD)
So yeah, it’s a fashion magazine. It’s from November, I have no idea why it was still out there, but w/e. xD
I actually had a lot of fun looking through it even though I don’t really care about fashion and stuff. Some of it was kinda crazy and weird, like who the hell would ACTUALLY wear some of this stuff. =P
So anyway, I decided to go through and scan a couple of pages- just the ones with people that I’ve actually heard of, haha. xD Basically, that means Kamiki Aya (who’s on the cover), Buono!, and Shirota Yuu, who I didn’t even notice was in the magazine at first (I totally don’t know the kanji for his name so I didn’t see it on the cover or ToC) but then I was flipping through and he was just like THERE. xD

So, yeah, here are the scans. Sorry for the not-so-good quality of some of them. I seriously don’t know what’s up with my scanner.

…I used to totally dislike Shirota Yuu. I think it’s cause my very first introduction to Tenimyu (well, technically the live-action movie) was a picture of him playing Tezuka and of course I had the initial “EW IT LOOKS SO WEIRD IN LIVE-ACTION DDD:” reaction. And I still think he looks weird and nerdy as Tezuka. But after seeing pictures of him -not- playing Tezuka, he’s not that bad. xD

Since when did Morning Musume have a manga? @_@

I was totally unaware Morning Musume had a manga…called Musume Monogatari, and it was in Nakayoshi. @_@
Lol, not like I pay any attention to shoujo magazines, but someone was selling some Nakayoshi issues and said that ‘Musume Monogatari (morning musume manga)’ was in it…so basically my Morning Musume fandom requires me to get those issues. xDD The LJ user was also selling two issues of some other manga magazine (dunno which one, couldn’t read the title) that apparently had a Minimoni manga, and Morning Musume + Minimoni interviews.
So of course I got them all. xDDD I seriously vowed last week to wait a couple of weeks before I bought more things, cause I bet my mom’s gonna start getting suspicious considering every week when I come home there’s always at least one package waiting for me. =P Except this week, but those two packages should come tomorrow. xD
BUT THIS IS A SPECIAL EXCEPTION. xDDD
Cause, I mean, manga and anime and stuff like that, you can get other places, but when people sell manga magazines, especially old ones like the ones in this post (2002-2003), it’s pretty hard to find elsewhere…so yeah.
That totally doesn’t rationalize buying them, but…8D They were cheap…?

You know, now that I think about it, I have an issue of this other shoujo manga magazine Ciao that I got from my camp that has a manga involving Minimoni in it. Hmm…xD

On a random note, I have this post about H!P shuffle units that I wrote today, but I wrote half of it during history class so I wasn’t 100% focused on it, and now I’m too tired to read it over and edit it so I’ll do that in the morning. xD

ugh since when has Friday night been ‘early’ for Jump chapters?

I REMEMBER THE DAYS WHERE THE CHAPTERS REGULARLY CAME OUT ON THURSDAY
D:<
people have been saying stuff like ‘wow, it’s early this week’ when Jump chapters came out on Friday night.
Seriously, since when has Friday night been early?
=/
I was so used to them coming out on Thursday, and maybe even Wednesday if we were lucky, then they started coming out on Friday instead.
It took me forever to get accustomed to that, but now I’m so used to the main manga (One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, PoT, Eyeshield 21…) coming out on Friday afternoon…and now they’re starting to come out either really really late on Friday night (last week PoT was out at around midnight IIRC) or Saturday morning. A couple of weeks ago, the chapters weren’t out until Sunday morning. =/
And even though it’s still the same amount of time between chapters, it feels like FOREVER cause I’m still half-expecting them on Friday afternoon. >_<
Oh well, eventually I’ll get used to them coming out on Saturdays…

Oh my god, Konomi. (PoT CHAPTER 359 SPOILERS)

DON’T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!!
xDDDDDDD

I mean, seriously. I have a tendency to think about things in a chapter as they happen, instead of waiting to read the entire chapter first…which is HORRIBLE in a chapter like this. xDDD
I mean, the chapter starts out with a view of the scoreboard, where Inui/Kaidou vs Yanagi/Kirihara was 5-1 (Seigaku forfeited) and singles 2 is 5-0, with Rikkai in the lead. Then it shows Niou absolutely PWNING Fuji! D:
So here’s where I basically took a moment to stop and freak out.
I mean, Seigaku’s about to lose the fucking Nationals, in 3 straight matches. DDDDD:
So not only was I freaking out about the possibility of Seigaku losing the very last match of the entire tennis season, which would force the third-years to retire…
…but I was also freaking out because it’s SO UNLIKE KONOMI to jump from Inui/Kaidou pair losing at the end of last chapter to match game for singles 2. Especially with Fuji losing. And especially when Fuji losing means Seigaku losing to Rikkai and everything.
So I came to the conclusion that PoT is definitely ending when it’s Shounen Jump run ends. Because otherwise there’s no way Konomi would go that fast in the finals…he usually writes really long matches, and being the finals, this should be no exception. If the series was going to continue in tankoubon format, he wouldn’t have to rush things like this.
So then I was really really sad about everything, and still freaking out, and then I turned back to read the rest of the chapter, hoping Fuji could somehow make a comeback.

But then…
Then Niou takes the wig off, and it’s like ROAR I’M REALLY KIRIHARA IN DEVIL MODE…ok, at that I kinda figured something was up. xD
AND THEN INUI WAKES UP FROM HIS NIGHTMARE.
xDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Btw, he looks uber weird with all the bandages…but anyway…

So then it turns out FUJI is the one pwning NIOU. xDD

So, yeah….seriously Konomi, don’t scare me like that! D: I really thought Seigaku was going to lose the Nationals!

Ok, so basically what this means is this:
Niou’s gonna make a comeback, because a one-sided match isn’t that fun, but he’s not going to be able to win…Seigaku has to win these next two matches, singles 2 and doubles 1, so then it’ll be a showdown between Ryoma and Yukimura.
Doubles 1 is Marui/Jackal. It’s got to be. I can’t see them putting out Yagyuu/Marui or Yagyuu/Jackal, it just doesn’t really work. O_o
There is still hope for a tankoubon continuation. =D At first in this chapter I figured Konomi was rushing it so much it’s definitely ending, but that turned out to be Inui’s dream…so there’s still a chance that it’ll continue in tankoubon format…

I hate Friday evenings.

Because I’m always up late refreshing MangaHelpers every 5 minutes waiting for the week’s Shounen Jump raw chapters to come out. D:
Ugh, they’ve been getting later and later lately…a couple of weeks ago the raws weren’t even out until Saturday afternoon!
I remember back in the good old days when Naruto would typically come out on Thursdays. D: And I’m assuming the other SJ manga with it, I wasn’t into anything else back then…

DDDD:
I really really really need to know what happens in the next chapter of PoT…
UGH I CAN’T WAIT UNTIL THE CHAPTER COMES OUT. D:

It appears to be confirmed…

NUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Ok, any last bit of hope I had about the PoT finale being a rumor just died.
Looks like it’s confirmed.
Now, there’s still a bit of hope that it’s just the serialization ending…but…

Someone on the Weekly Jump LJ community said this:
“And so the countdown begins: 11 issues before Ryoma Echizen hangs his racket forever!”
…and I think a part of me died inside.
DON’T FUCKING PUT IT LIKE THAT~ DDDDDDDDD:
Seriously, if I read more comments like that (especially the ones where they’re like “no big loss, really”) I might actually cry. And I don’t want to, considering I’m in the dorm at Nobles and I don’t want to cry in front of my roommate about something she wouldn’t understand…now, if my roommate was that girl downstairs that loves anime (and PoT, whee), I wouldn’t mind so much, but…xD
I really hope it’ll continue in tankoubon format…I mean, I know I’m gonna cry at the end no matter what, but I’d rather cry at like an emotional good ending (like the third-years graduating) than an uber crappy rushed ending. xD
Cause seriously, a couple people on weeklyjump think otherwise, but 11 chapters is not enough for Konomi to finish it off nicely. Three and a half matches left, plus Ryoma has amnesia plus he has to beat his dad (and maybe Tezuka, but then again Tezuka losing to Sanada might be good enough) plus the third-years have to graduate and stuff like that…AND THERE HAS TO BE AN EPILOGUE OF SOME SORT. XDDDD Lolz, well not really, but I’d love to see one~

Let’s just hope for the best and wait and see what happens~

So…Prince of Tennis is ending soon…

Well, this news killed my good mood TWICE today (yes, twice. >___>), and after the second time I figured I should at least post something about it…

http://community.livejournal.com/weeklyjump/52738.html

And if you’re too lazy to click the link…

According to Ritual scan and Heiji-sama from Mangaverse, Jump will be putting an end to:
– Prince of Tennis
– Belmonde
– Hero Studies
starting from issue #48. (on sale 26th of November)

AND new series are expected by more established authors such as:
– Shinya Suzuki (Mr. Fullswing)
– Mizuki Kawashita (Ichigo 100%)
– Takeshi Obata (artist for Death Note, Hikaru no Go)
and a series by Shiibashi Hiroshi, who recently had a most superb one shot called Nurarihyon no Mago.

Last year we had these kind of rumours too, when Obata and Takei were about to start Blue Dragon and Jumbor respectively; so I’m inclined to consider this true. Also because a LOT of new artists just aren’t sticking; and that likely has Jump reaching back to past glories.

I really don’t care about most of that, but…

According to Ritual scan and Heiji-sama from Mangaverse, Jump will be putting an end to:
– Prince of Tennis
starting from issue #48. (on sale 26th of November)

Well…
It’s no secret Prince of Tennis is almost over. However…they’re rushing it…which isn’t good…
I guess instead of letting it end naturally, Jump’s cutting it…you’d think for a long-running series like PoT they’d at least let it end naturally…but there’s no way it’s ending naturally with only ~3 months left before it’s over…there’s too much left to finish up…even if it ended right after the Nationals (well, not that it’d go into another plot arc anyway, but I figured it’d have a couple of chapters after the Nationals), it’d still be rushing the Nationals matches…we still have three matches to go plus finishing up doubles 2…I really don’t want to see a rushed ending for this…
well…this is the first time anything I’ve been following weekly has ended…well, Hitomi no Catoblepas is ending, but that’s new and even though I was interested in it I wasn’t really too into it…
I’m pretty sad I only managed to get into Prince of Tennis so recently, when it’s about to end and everything…I’ve done that so many times it’s not even funny…for once I’d like to be able to say “I read this manga weekly before it was even popular!”…for Prince of Tennis I guess it was the other way around, I caught it after it hit it’s peak and when it wasn’t as popular anymore…so that’s why I’ve been trying to read new manga lately, but that’s failed…Hitomi no Catoblepas was cut, Belmonde’s getting cut…
I always figured for a manga/anime, once it ended in Japan, I’d still have the English version to follow…but honestly, I don’t think I want to follow the English version of Prince of Tennis that much…the dubbed anime sucks, and the English manga is full of so much crap…I keep noticing stupid mistakes, like on the back of one of the volumes they called Jirou “Jin”, and then “Takashi ‘Taka’ Momoshiro”…

so, yeah, this ruined my uber good mood this morning (hey, it’s Saturday, that’s enough to have me in a good mood, not to mention the PoT box set #2 came and everything) when I first saw it on the community, then after a day of reading fanfiction and listening to music and pushing this to the back of my mind, someone posted it on MangaHelpers and it ruined my mood again…

I’m seriously cursed with the bad luck of getting into series after they’re either past their prime or already over…usually the second option, actually, considering most of my manga is just the English version so it’s usually already over in Japan…so I think I’m gonna start some shounen series soon that aren’t quite new, but aren’t really uber uber huge hits…

recommendations, maybe?
then again, I think the only people who read this blog are the j-pop fans, and probably won’t be able to help that much…

On the bright side, the raw for Prince of Tennis 356 is finally out…not that that’s much of a bright side compared to the bad news here, but…

Bleach games coming out in the US

YAAAYYYYY
So I finally got my copy of the October issue of Shounen Jump today. I still have yet to figure out why the hell they come so early; it would make so much more sense if it was the September issue. But whatever…
The first thing that caught my eye was the fact that there’s SO MUCH DRAGONBALL Z THIS ISSUE. DDDDDDDDDD:
But anyway.
Then I flipped open the magazine, stared at the ad for Naruto: Rise of a Ninja for a few minutes (why oh why do I not have an Xbox 360), then flipped past it, and something else immediately caught my eye.

Flaming Hot DVD
Comin’ at you next month is Vol. 3 of The Prince of Tennis Box Set! Ryoma and his teammates at Seigaku Academy are now competing at the Metropolitan Tournament, and their “golden pair” in doubles is forced to resort to an unusual formation. Contains episodes 27-38. Special features include: original Japanese trailers and original Japanese opening and ending credits!

So I’m gonna break this down a bit, I guess…
“Flaming Hot DVD!-” (you mean they actually care about Prince of Tennis?) “Comin’ at you next month-” (ok, I squee-d for a second before realizing that they meant October; it’s still August so I thought they meant September) “-is Vol. 3 of The Prince of Tennis Box Set!-” (already? didn’t the second one just come out? speaking of which, it STILL HASN’T ARRIVED. D:) “-Ryoma and his teammates at Seigaku Academy-” (ok, this line is fail. Seigaku is short for Seishun Gakuen, which basically is Seishun Academy or w/e. Seigaku is a team nickname. Seigaku Academy makes no sense. It’s like…my school is Noble & Greenough School; the nickname is Nobles, but we don’t call it “Nobles School”, that makes no sense) “-are now competing at the Metropolitan Tournament-” (to be honest, I stopped there to take a minute to figure out what the hell they were referring to, cause there’s no “Metropolitan Tournament”. The Prefecturals?) “-and their “golden pair”-” (no, no quotation marks. Golden Pair.) “-in doubles-” (no duh. what, do they think that people think a pair could be in singles?) “-is forced to resort to an unusual formation.-” (the Australian Formation? It’s unusual, but I wouldn’t really say they were “forced to resort” to it…) “-Contains episodes 27-38.-” (St. Rudolph arc, right?) “-Special features include: original Japanese trailers and original Japanese opening and ending credits!” (NO. NO. NO. The original OP/ED shouldn’t be “special features”. If they’re going to brag on the cover about the episodes being “uncut”, the OP/ED should be fully intact! WTF~ Especially because they use the original opening and ending for Naruto boxed sets…I wouldn’t mind as much (well I’d still hate it, cause the American PoT OP/ED are crap, but…) if they didn’t say on the box “UNCUT”. They say it’s “uncut”, but it’s not- it’s the exact same thing you see on Toonami/Toonami Jetstream- the American OP/ED, and the American title screen. Seriously, wtf? I was really hoping they’d use the original OP/ED…I wanna see Driving Myself and KEEP YOUR STYLE. DDDDD:)
Lolz, I needed something to rant over, and this was perfect. =D The English version of the anime is crap, and the manga’s not too good either.

BUT ANYWAY
YAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY
I totally freaked out on one of the Bleach pages. For two reasons. The first being…
YAAAAAYYYY THE BLEACH WII GAME IS COMING OUT IN AMERICA
and a DS game that I’ve never heard of before.
I’ve actually really wanted to play the Wii game for a while, but I don’t think there’s a Freeloader for the Wii. This is great~ I’m really surprised though, it’s way farther than the American anime is. Not that I’m complaining or anything.
The second thing is that they had a thing at the bottom of the page going all “SOUL REAPER ALL POINTS BULLETIN”. It was a fake “warning note” or something. Pretty lame, but then…
THERE WERE PICTURES OF GRIMMJOW AND ULQUIORRA
@_____@
Wowwwww, the English manga is pretty close to where the Japanese manga is~

And then way later on in the magazine, they decided to make an announcement…
BLEACH IS BEING SERIALIZED IN SHOUNEN JUMP STARTING NEXT MONTH
YAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
YAYYYYYYYYYY
I think it’s a good decision. Bleach is one of the top 3 Jump manga in Japan, and I’m so glad they’re putting it in the magazine. I think they’re starting from the Arrancar arc, so…

So now the only thing left that would make me uber happy would be if they put PoT in the magazine. 100% never gonna happen though. I always thought it was really popular in Japan, but it seems like it’s been near the bottom of the Jump ToC lately. And it’s not popular in America at all, so I’m not gonna get my hopes up.

By the way, I noticed something slightly amusing when I was putting away some of my manga the other day.
On the inside cover for Bleach volume 1, there was an ad for other Shounen Jump manga. The main one they were advertising…was Prince of Tennis volume 13.
So…well, both series have 20 volumes at the moment in America. Does that mean that in the time it took for Bleach to release 20 volumes, Prince of Tennis only released 7?
O___o
*goes off to ponder this thought*