I Just Finished Bleach!

Well finished as in, finished up to the latest chapter that is. I've put off reading the manga for years and finally I've gone through more than 320 chapters in two days! I was going to space out my time evenly, but I couldn't bring myself to stop reading it. It was just.. so good..

So start reading now!

Paradise Kiss Episode 12 - Ending!

Spoilers!

So recently, I watched the last episode of Paradise Kiss and the ending was totally not expected. I expected that Yukari would have ended up with George, but that wasn't the case at all. After watching it, I wished that the story would continue because it was beautifully written.

Kaori vists George on Christmas Day, only to find out that she had interrupted George and Yukari, and Yukari was not at all pleased with it. However, Kaori tells George to go London to pursue a career as a designer, but George tells her about his plans to be a make-up artist and his desire for breaking up Paradise Kiss. This proceeds to him talking to his father, where his father agrees to sponsor his overseas study in design.

On New Years' Eve, Yukari and George arrive at a festival watching the sunset. George tells her that he is planning to go to Paris to pursue design and asks Yukari to come with him. With tears in her eyes, she declines and tells him that she has just started her modelling career in Japan and cannot come with him. George smiles and tells her that it was the right decision.

Ten years later, Yukari is engaged to her classmate and first crush - Hiro. She tells readers avidly that she is going to be married in two weeks and that they have been sent tickets to a broadway play in New York - a play whose costumes were designed by George Koizumi.

As I said before, the end was not expected for me. I had expected a typical, happy ending where the two main characters would end up together, but that was not the case. However, it was the lack of the typical happy ending that made this anime/manga so wonderful. I don't believe that it was sad, but it was very realistic. Although I love seeing George and Yukari together (they are so cute.. xD), I think it was better for Yukari in the end to marry Hiro and not George. She needs a lover that is willing to shower her with a lot of affection and love and someone to spoil her. In my opinion, George is unable to do all of that for her.

I recommend everyone to watch this and then read the manga! The anime is okay, but the manga is just simply amazing.

Paradise Kiss

So recently, I've been obsessed with the anime/manga NANA. Now I'm obsessed with the anime/manga Paradise Kiss, which is by the same author as NANA. Paradise Kiss is about a high school student, Yukari, who does not know what to do in life except for study for college entrance exams just to please her mother. One day, she is asked to be a model for Yazawa Art School's Fashion Contest, and reluctantly agreed. Soon she realizes that she does not want to take the college entrance exams at all, and falls in love with the group leader, George.

Okay, excuse me for my crappy summary, you should all google Paradise Kiss instead! I've always been horrible at summarizing stories.. But seriously, Paradise Kiss is just as good as NANA. The anime spans 12 episodes, and it was "okay", but not as good as the manga. You couldn't really fit a lot of the plot in just 12 episodes (the manga spanned 5 volumes), so sometimes everything seems a bit rushed.

My suggestion is that you watch the anime first and then read the manga because once you've read the manga (amazing, pure awesome-ness), you won't want to watch the anime. So watch the anime first! Emotions are perfectly expressed in the manga, unlike the anime, which everyone is sort-of monotone-ish. Right now I'm in the process of converting the episodes into .mp4 format for my iPod so I can watch it on-the-go!

Recently Watching: Nana!

Recently, I've been obsessed with the anime/manga/movie, Nana. Although I have summer school, and I *should* be doing my homework.. I've been staying up late everyday to watch/read Nana. XD! But I can't help it.. it's so good.. The anime was amazing, the manga was even more amazing, it's just that the movies were okay. I'm not particulary fond of the actors in the 2nd movie (Ren), but I do like the choice of Shin's actor! He was so adorable in the manga (being only 15), and in my opinion, the actor in the first movie looked a tad too old to play the role.

I read the manga first. Actually, I read it twice. The first time I read it, I was skimming past the pages with a lot of dialogue because I'm pretty impatient for these kind of things. But then I realized I was missing out on a lot of the story; I had absolutely no idea what was going on in the last ten chapters because of all the flashbacks. So I had to re-read it and everything started making sense! It's amazing and I recommend it to everyone!