- We got some snow yesterday, and today the sun finally decided to appear again after being absent for weeks. In other words, it's been a really beautiful day. Right now the full moon is shining very bright outside, so it's a beautiful evening as well.

- Apparently the snow put me in Christmas mood, because now I'm sitting here trying to decide what presents to buy for my siblings and parents before I go home. My youngest sister wants either Twilight (the book) or "some Johnny Depp movie" (she loves Tim Burton's movies and the PotC trilogy, so that's probably why she's a fan of his*). I think I'll go for the latter, mainly out of self-interest/fear of getting the whole house filled with fanart of sparkly vampires.

- I'd totally forgotten that Kobato ep 8 was airing today, so coming home and seeing the link to it posted here on LJ was a nice surprise. It was a cute episode, the animation was better than in the previous one and yay, more Takashi!

- Some days ago I read the Antique Bakery manga. I don't know why I haven't done that earlier, everyone has been telling me that I should read it but for some reason it still took me ages before I did. Anyway, I loved it. It has such a wonderful atmosphere to it and it's probably impossible not to like the characters. To be honest I think I might have developed a little crush on Tachibana while reading, ahem.

- I've also caught up completely with the Tegami Bachi manga now. It really just keeps getting better; I like everyone in the cast so much - Lag, Gauche, Sylvette and Niche are still my favorites, but Aria, Connor, Zaji and several others have been growing on me a lot as well. I'm looking forward to following the monthly chapter releases from now on.

(*Question to native English speakers/anyone who's good at English: do you say "of him" or "of his"?)

I'd been planning to to lots of things today, but this was what I ended up enjoying myself with instead. I blame Jun Mochizuki, there is something about her art that I just can't resist.

( 3 colored scans from Pandora Hearts retrace 43 - no spoilers )

( random rl talk )

Also, some anime rambling (includes spoilers):


( Letter Bee ep 8 )

( Kobato ep 7 )

Mostly incoherent babbling, but still.

( spoilers )

As for Holic ch 193 I've already been talking (too much) about it elsewhere but it was definitely an interesting chapter. Too bad there's such a long break now.

The CLAMP fandom has been really spoiled the last few days, hasn't it? Not only did we get cover pictures like this and this for the TRC artbook, there's also that KuroFai cell phone wallpaper and best of all, the extra pages from TRC vol 28. ♥

( brief talk about those pages - spoilers for the end of TRC )

Oh, and Kobato episode 6 was very nice. I didn't expect the debt collector to appear so soon, but I definitely don't complain about that. Seeing Ginsei and Genko was great, they both looked and sounded really good. Ginsei didn't sound too much like Fai, thankfully, I think his voice fit him very well.

Ugh, I need to stop making entries this late when I'm supposed to get up at 6.30 am the next morning.

Just a few thoughts on random things I've been wanting to post about the last few days but haven't had time for:

- ( xxxHolic 192 spoilers )


- ( Kobato drop 16C spoilers )

- Seeing the Matoba arc from the Natsume Yuujinchou manga finally being translated makes me so ridiculously happy. ♥ I've been wanting to read what's actually is being said in those chapter for ages. Hopefully there will be actual scanlations out soon too.

- I love the illustrations from vol 4 of Karneval that were posted yesterday - especially that picture of Gareki (see icon). I really adore how this mangaka colors her pictures, the way she mixes all kinds of different colors like that and makes it turn out so pretty is simply amazing.

- Seems like there will be no new Nabari chapter in the next issue of GFantasy. That's a little disappointing, but on the other hand that gives me some time to reread the last few volumes of the manga. I really should do that, I feel like there are some things I've been missing while being worried about the fate of certain characters.

Oh, and the most important thing I learnt today was this: if your car is old and has bad tires, don't try driving up a steep, narrow gravel road that's covered with slippery ice. You'll just get stuck by the side of the road in the middle of the slope without being able to move anywhere until some helpful truck driver comes by and strews grit on the road. At least I managed to keep the car on the road though, I think that's something to be proud of considering the circumstances.

More PH icons. :X I tried to be a little more experimental this time - I'm not sure if that was a good idea, but it was fun. Elliot is still my favorite character to color.


( 30 icons )

So, it's become colder here the last few days. We got some more snow yesterday as well, so it really feels like winter now. It reminds me that it's not that long left until Christmas, and that I really should start thinking about what to buy for my family this year. It would be nice to have all the Christmas presents finished in time for once. Part of me hates the Christmas hysteria that always hits the country at this time of the year, and I can't say that I care very much about the things some people seem to consider essential for Christmas, but I do like buying presents. It gives me a good reason to buy stuff I normally wouldn't get for myself, and I don't have to feel bad about wasting money on it since it's for someone else. :3

( About Kobato episode 5 - slight spoilers )

Some days ago I finally started reading the Letter Bee/Tegami Bachi manga (I can't decide whether I want to use the English or the Japanese name, I tend to think of the manga as the Tegami Bachi and of the anime as Letter Bee but I have a feeling that it will be confusing to have it like that in the long run). I'm currently on volume 5 and so far I like it even more than I thought I would. There's something very enchanting about the atmosphere and the settings of the story - somehow it reminds me a little of the feeling I used to get from some of the fantasy series I read when I was younger. I like the characters a lot too, especially Lag, Niche and Sylvette.

As for rl, not very much has been happening lately. My job takes up a lot of time, but I really like all the people I work with so I'm fine with that. I'm looking forward to getting some free time next month though.

Also, I've come to the conclusion that making Pandora Hearts icons is far too addictive. Whenever I've made a new batch of bases I just can't stop coloring them until they're all finished. Hence the fact that I only slept for four hours last night and the night before that. I seriously need to get better at prioritizing.

First, since I finally managed to overcome my lack of inspiration for making graphics:

( a few icons )

I've had an extremely lazy day today, but I decided that I deserved that since this week has been rather hectic. Yesterday we got some more snow, so everything's white and very quiet outside right now. My dog loves the snow, he could probably be out playing in it all day if he was allowed to. Sometimes he's really just like a little kid.

I'm starting to like the Letter Bee anime more and more, by the way. I watched episode 5 today and the characters that were introduced there seemed pretty interesting. Niche is absolutely adorable too, of course. I haven't had time to start reading the manga yet, but perhaps I'll go and look for it tomorrow.

On another note, xxxHolic chapter 191 was nice. It seems like this arc won't last very long after all, unless something unexpected happens. Oh, and everyone has been talking about it already, but I really loved the splash page.

Hm, and tomorrow is Father's Day and my sister's birthday. Hopefully I'll remember both. D:

Yesterday I managed to oversleep and get late for work by almost an hour. It didn't matter that much because I have a lot of overtime hours saved up since earlier, but it did make me a little shocked because, well, I never oversleep (seriously, I don't think it has happened more than two or three times in my whole life). I do get late for various stuff quite often, but that's usually for other reasons (such as my car not starting, my phone always ringing when I'm in a hurry, my dog running away with my things when I'm about to leave the apartment and so on).

Talking of work, I ended up getting my employment time extended another month after all. I'm very happy for that, that gives me more time to find another job - preferably a little closer to my family's place.

As for fandom-related things, I think I'll limit the number of new anime shows that I'll be following this season to three for now: Kobato, Letter Bee and Aoi Bungaku. There were other series that I liked as well - Sasameki Koto, for instance - but somehow I'm just not in the right mood to watch them at the moment. I might pick them up again later, but right now I feel more like focusing on manga for a while. There are so many manga titles that I've been wanting to read for ages, and so many that I'm behind in as well.


... Have I done this meme before? I can't remember, but anyway:

Name a fandom and I'll tell you my...
OTP:
Runner-up:
Honorable mention(s):
Crack pairing(s):
Ship everyone else seems to like, but I don't:

First, a belated Happy Halloween to everyone! I didn't do anything special yesterday, but overall it's been a very calm and nice weekend so I don't have any complaints at all.

Second, this comes rather late, but I'm so very happy that Holic will continue for at least one more volume. I suppose it was rather expected - CLAMP doesn't exactly seem to be in a hurry to finish the story at the moment after all - but it's still nice to have it confirmed.

I've spent this weekend catching up with various stuff, since I've been falling behind in so many of the series I'm following lately. Yesterday I finished the Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 anime, it was very good even though I can recommend picking another title if you want to get in a good mood for Halloween. ;; I knew that the story would probably be sad, but (spoiler) Yuuki dying was definitely not what I'd expected. Or well, maybe I had, but I wanted both him and Mirai to come home safely so badly. :( I liked the show a lot though, it was very well-made and definitely the kind of series that you'll remember for a long time after you've finished it.

I've also caught up with the second season of Merlin, and I like it just as much as the first season. The interactions between the main characters (no matter what combination) are so enjoyable to watch, and I really love the humor of this show. Is it just me, or have they added even more comedy elements this season? The latest episode, for instance, was just... so much crack. Not that I mind though. Oh, and I also realized that the show airs on Saturday evenings, which means that I can download the new episodes then and watch them on Sunday mornings, and that means that I have a good reason to look forward to that time of the week again, just like back when Code Geass and Gundam 00 aired. I do like Sunday mornings a lot already, but this makes them even better. 8)

( rambling about writing )

Since it's the 27th here now, Happy Birthday eire_endellion! I hope you have an awesome day. ♥


( rl talk )

( anime rambling )

On a random note: This must be one of the prettiest Nabari fanart pics I've seen (colored version here).

Also random: Nice outfit, Ribbons. *is amused*

I'm so tired of working right now, I feel like I could sleep for weeks if I was allowed to. The weather doesn't help very much; the last few days have been cold and gray and snowy, and it looks like it'll continue like that over the weekend too.

Now there are only two days left before I'm going back to my own apartment again though, and I really can't wait. I'm planning to have a major catch-up with all the series I'm following as soon as I can use my own Internet connection again, because right now I'm behind in pretty much everything. There are also tons of new manga and anime titles that I want to check out, not to mention that I need to start watching the second season of Merlin and other stuff as well. Oh, and I'm itching to write and draw and make icons too, I haven't had time for that at all lately. It's nice to have so many things to look forward to. :3

Brief manga talk (including some spoilers):

( xxxHolic ch 188 and 189 )

( Nabari no ou ch 63 )

As for the rumors about a new Code Geass anime... to be honest I'm not sure what to think about it. I don't think I would mind, at least as long as they don't, uh, change what happened at the end of R2. On the other hand, Code Geass would really feel like Code Geass without... well, you know. In any case, we'll just have to wait and see what happens (if anything happens, that is).

Oh, and something more rl-related: yesterday the Swedish church agreed to conduct same-sex weddings. About time, I say. I'm not a religious person at all, but it's great that gay couples finally have the same marriage options as heterosexual ones.

This post is kind of rushed since Internet is being very unreliable today for some reason (I keep getting disconnected every few minutes). I just had to make some brief comments on the new Pandora Hearts chapter, though.

( spoilers for retrace 42 )

Now, if only we could get scans for the new Nabari chapter too...

A couple of days ago I finally got the time to check out some more of this season's new anime shows, so I ended up watching the first episodes of Sasameki Koto, Letter Bee and Tatakau Shisho. Letter Bee is definitely a keeper, I liked the first episode a lot. I haven't read the manga, but I'm planning to do it as soon as I get back to my own place so I can download stuff as usual again. As for the other two titles, I thought both were ok, but I think I need to watch some more episodes before I can decide whether I should continue to follow them or not.

On another note, I also got myself a paid account here on LJ. Not only because I wanted more icon space, it was mostly because I thought it'd be nice to be able to edit my posts and get rid of ads. I definitely don't complain about having more user pics either though (although now I'm having problems deciding what icon to use everytime I'm posting a comment, ahaha). However, I don't think I'll be paying extra for more icons, 30 is enough for me.

Just a few updates on various things:

I haven't been able to be online very much the last few days, partly because of limited Internet access and partly because I've been very busy with rl stuff, but hopefully next week will be better. Right now I'm at my family's place but I'm going back to work on Sunday (man I'm tired of travelling right now, I've been away from my own apartment for almost two months now. :| I'll probably be back there before the end of October though, or at least I hope so).

I still haven't had time to check out any more new anime shows, but I'll definitely do it as soon as I get the time. I'm especially interested in Sasameki Koto and Letter Bee/Tegami Bachi.

As for the Kobato anime, I loved the second episode even more than the first one. Also, I'm still very amused by the fact that Daisuke Namikawa is going to make the voice for Ginsei. I'm already having a hard time not imagining Ioryogi as Kurogane, and throwing in Fai's VA won't make it any easier. Not to mention that I already ship Ioryogi/Ginsei a little.

Oh, and the new Kobato chapter? I don't have very much to say about it apart from (spoiler) KOHAKU! ♥ So much love.

Last, a meme: ( icon talk )