Here is some thing that I'm SURE no one on my f-list will care about, much less have sympathy for (Except maybe Mellowcandle's husband D):

To-Loveru got cut by JUMP. To-Loveru is... was, following Love Hina and Ichigo (Strawberry) 100%, the leading Shonen Jump harem/fanservice/ecchi series. In that regard its role and importance as part of the childhood/teen/young adult memories of many guy readers cannot be underestimated. I'd go so far as to say it was culturally significant (Gintama's spoof of it became a popular saying). I was never hugely into the story, but I liked several of the characters, I thought the art was great, and I understood it was quite the best seller.

I don't think I've felt this sad over the end of a series since... well, gosh, Slam Dunk?? Which also came to an abrupt end, but I'm not sure was cut. Everything in between either had a satisfactory ending or I felt deserved to get cut or had been dragging on too long anyways.

Damn you JUMP! DAMN YOU TO HELLL! Until To-Loveru gets revived somewhere else I'm never reading a major JUMP series again.



Edit: Writer's POV:
I agree with critics that the story was going no where. That's the writer's fault (there was a mangaka and writer for ToLoveru), although one must credit him for creating the interesting characters in the first place.

But couldn't he have at least misled/tricked the general public into thinking that something non-repetitive was going to happen? An illusion of development? Of heading toward some kind of conclusory climax?? To keep himself from getting CUT??? Imbecile!

I swear, give me three chapters, I COULD HAVE come with a plot device that would have been not-repetitive enough to save the series from being cut.

Vampire Hunter D: Can't believe I didn't watch this until now. It's about a cool Vampire guy in love with a pretty human girl, and how that's not cool with everyone else. There's tons of action though, so something for both the dudes and the chicks:



B+ on Professional Responsibility; guess my essay contrasting Jack Bauer and lawyers went over with the Prof (notoriously stingy with handing out grades).

Craiglist textbook buy went off without a hitch; saved 100 dollars off bookstore price. Still need to find a time (soon!) to go to Berkeley to pick up another textbook for another 60 dollar saving.

Parents tagged along to SF; ended up going to China Town because dad was nostalgic. Ate at the landlady's restaurant: Clear clam soup, pot stickers, really good mushu, steamed rock cod, salt and pepper crab, bean sprout leaf, tofu, and Fuzhou fried rice. As it turns out my two most luxurious meals this Summer both came as treats form the landlady. It's good to live with a legendary Chinese restaurateur.

Big O: The English dub is actually superior to the Japanese dub in some respects; particularly the villains and Dorothy. I don't think there has been another major Japanese show that has tried to emulate the American cartoon style.

Will probably finish chapter 22 of the Geass fic tomorrow. Productivity has increased in recent days; going to the library for 1 hour a day helps.

Also, entirely by accident, I stumbled across an OLD show that I now must watch. Like most mecha shows I fall in love with, I'm in for one thing:

The music.



Boss Battle Music:


Different versions of the Opening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z8HYr20usw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdae0z2S06c&NR=1

The studio who made this show supposedly did animation work for Batman, the cartoon. The influence is obvious, and Big O is a tribute of sorts to many shows. BATMAN PLUS HUGE ROBOTS. And an ANDROID CHICK SIDEKICK. I also learned that the composer who wrote the music for Big O also wrote the music for Full Metal Panic and Gunslinger Girl, two shows highly noted for their outstanding soundtracks.

*Craigslist turned up 3 of the several textbooks I need for the upcoming semester. I've arranged to buy two of them for $120 where the Campus Bookstore sells them used for $220; still negotiating to buy the third one; $60 for $120.

$180 in the bank with 2-3 hours of driving. Not bad.

*Tuna casserole turned out pretty good. Moist, but lack of crumbs layer on meant it wasn't crispy.

*Bakemonogatari Episode 6: The previous mini-arc dragged a little, but this episode had explosive development and the strangest, scariest, cutest blossoming romance I've seen in anime in a while. Senjouhagara Tore!

http://www.animecrazy.net/bakemonogatari-episode-6/

*Gonna write six hundred words today I will.

*Finished watching Astro Fighter Sunred. I will really miss it, despite it being such a short show.

"The greatest sin a man can commit against a woman is disinterest."
~The tentacle ceiling monster, counseling the Hero on his relationship with Kayako, his girlfriend. Episode 13.

http://www.animecrazy.net/category/completed-anime-shows/astro-fighter-sunred/

Recommended by Minako: A look into the mundane but meaningful everyday lives of the Monsters, Villains, and Hero in a Power Ranger kinda show.

There is lots of food references and there are three talking stuffed-animal villains. The Hero's girlfriend is remarkably real and not a wallpaper.

10 minute episodes excluding OP and ED.

Very memorable characters. The comedy is not over the top; laid back, but which I found extremely effective.

Monster: "Now go home and say something nice about her new haircut."

Edit: Found a great new open air European style market near home. Tons of imported cheese at jaw-dropping prices, fresh produce, including exotic stuff like Kale. Great sausage/smoked meats selection, European goods. I also bought two shards of vanilla and bitter chocolate, the thick kind broken off from the inch-thick square-yard slab. Again, jaw-dropping (good) prices.

Tonight's menu:
Spinach and red lettuce and steak and bleu cheese salad.
Lemon Garlic Tilapia.
Dessert: Chilled almond tofu/jelly with mandarin oranges and fresh New Zealand pears.

Tomorrow's Menu:
Gourmet Tuna casserole with broccoli and asparagus.
Eggplant Parmesan.

For the first time in over 18 months, I'm interested in watching a new anime, due to the following OP:



For those of you who don't know: I absolutely will watch an anime on the strength of its OP and ED alone. I feel its the first and most important opportunity an Anime has to grab my interest (like the first page of a story--if you fail to get me interested in turning to page 2, you've failed). So I give them a lot of credit. Have no idea what "Bakemonogatari" is about. All I know is that some of the Zetsubou Sensei big wigs are involved, and shows in the animation style.

Two previous episode OPs (a new one for every episode!!!!)

For minako134, Mellowcandle (whom I will remind of this video once she returns from her trip), and anyone else who has seen the Matrix, Suzumiya Haruhi, and appreciates crazy mind-blowing fan vids:

Original quality flv (recommended download): file name is smile.flv
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?0dttjknijmj



I learned how to download from nicovideo and upload to youtube just so I could show this</i>. The creator made Taniguchi cool, an impossible task.

Original here: http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm3457764

EDIT: The quality loss from the original is atrocious. Does anyone know how I can fix this issue?

"Kimi ni Todoke" anime to start this fall.



≡ STAFF ≡
原　　作：椎名輕穗
監　　督：鏑木ひろ
系列構成：金春智子
角色設定：柴田由香
動畫制作：Production I.G

Yesterday in lawyer school we learned what to do when a client walks into our office, puts a gun on our desk and tells us "I just killed someone with that gun. Advise me." We learned that our response would be different if client had said "I shot someone and left him bleeding with that gun." We also learned that in many cases lawyers are obligated by their professional ethics not to do the "right/decent/moral thing."

In response to a real case in which a lawyer properly refuses to tell an anxious father where his daughter-the rape and dismembered murder victim of lawyer's client--the location of the body, one troubled student said in class after lengthy discussion. "I think I would still tell him."

The Professor responds: "Well, that's because right now you're still a person."

*Everyone laughs, I thought, in the way you laugh about a really good unemployment or foreclosure joke, the sort of graveyard humor that afterwards you feel a twinge of guilt or foreboding over*

The Professor goes on to say: "Then don't become a criminal defense lawyer. There are areas of law where you don't have to do deal with bodies. I don't know, like, incorporating a will."

*Everyone laughs, more heartily this time.*

One other thing: If you want to screw with a lawyer, ask it for advice. If it gives you advice and you act upon it and suffer the consequences, then that lawyer may well be in big trouble.

For [info]mellowcandle's request that she was going to make.

Title: Three Shots
Series: Tales of the Abyss
Length: 440 words
Request: Guy/Natalia
Genre: Romance
Summary: It's all in the title.

( Wine Tears and Sweet Somethings )

Its out, subs are out too. I wasn't going to watch this, but after reading reviews of it I decided to give it a go and I LOOOOOOOVVVEEE it already. An anime about the first novel in history, which happens to be a romance that involves the most idealized lover in Japanese culture: When Genji (Hikaru Kimi; the shining one, so called because he was astonishingly handsome and pretty and talented and learned and perfect in every way) was age nine he fell in love with one of his father the Emperor's concubines, Fujitsubou, who was five years older than him and strongly resembled his deceased mother. Decades later he would continue to search for a substitute for her through many different lovers.

OP by Ringo Shiina. Hell yeah. Give it a try folks.