Bye Bye Blogger

Well, for those who don't know (or don't care but came here anyways), I'm moving off this sad excuse of a blogging platform Blogger to join Randall's harem/host club in all their Wordpress glory. Yay, me? Anyways remember to come find me and my incoherent ramblings at tondemonothing.dasaku.net from now on :D

Byebee and whatnot.

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A Happy Mothers Day - From Toshokan Sensou!

Brawn Before Brains XD

There's a lot to like about this episode (unless you're just into the gun-toting aspects of this show), most notedly how everyone chipped in to help Iku distract her parents from the dangerous aspects of her job without her having to ask them (well, Shibasaki had to be offered a good meal, but I would have done the same. What are friends for? :P) Guess it once more shows us the 'princely' of the guys on the show (And yes, I did notice that Iku's dad drinks that Prince beer this time around)

Shibasaki to the rescue (again)! The scene made me think of Mint and her costume fetish XD

"Call me 'otousan' " *winks*

Also, it just happens to be that second Sunday of May, so here's a shout-out to my dearest mom back home - HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! (Then again, I'll probably have to be as desperate as Iku to hide the existence of this blog from my own parents, so I'll just have to send that message through other means, lol) This goes out to all moms out there too, especially those who watch anime (Is there such a demographic?) And not forgetting those in anime as well, who are always wishing the best for their offspring like their real life counterparts (though the means by which they go round displaying it is by far more entertaining - think Itazura na Kiss and Kyouran Kazoku Nikki)

Iku's mom is the rather over-concerned type, the kind that fusses over their children choosing less orthodox and sometimes risky paths in life. It doesn't gel too well with Iku's somewhat brash and headstrong personality and her insistence in joining the Library Task Force, but I guess it's some sort of stereotype for daughters not to have the best relationships with their moms (or conversely, have ridiculously good 'BFF'-like ones). Though Iku's mom was later than her dad (never underestimate a man who drinks PRINCE!) in fully realizing the scope of their daughter's wishes and accepting them, to her credit we do see by the end of the ep that the romantic streak of Iku's is something she shared by mother and daughter - just see her instant delight upon hearing of her daughter's Prince Charming story ;P In the end Iku realizes that opening up to her parents earlier on would have been the right thing to do, as they turned out to be more understanding of their child than what she gives them credit for - which is often the case in real life.

It kinda reminds me of the time I 'dropped the bombshell' on my own parents about my wanting to study in Japan ("Of all places???" was what their reaction was along the lines of) - something they never saw coming despite knowing well enough that I waste most of my life away spend a lot of my time watching anime XD. Though they were rather against it at first, mostly because it seemed to them like one of my infamously spur of the moment impulse driven decisions - and concerning that 'all important' education no less - so I did have to show that I did actually put some thought into this (ZOMG SRSLY??). The rest is, as they say, history :D

(I'll probably have even more trouble convincing readers of this blog that it's NOT* because of anime that I'm actually here, so I won't even try =P

*Okay fine, not SOLELY... ;P I still have a personal wish to watch Mizuki Nana perform live to fulfill! A little too late for that this year though... Or is it...?)

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From Osaka with...

Tower of the Sun in Banpaku-kinen kouen Osaka. The wikipedia page contains a bit more than what I needed to know about the origin of its name though...

Perhaps I should find it ironic that I’ve spent my first week in a supposedly technologically advanced country without an internet connection. Thankfully those days are gone and it’s back to my hikikomori-ing I go!... Or so I would like, only I now have to walk out of my room to another building to get that coveted wireless connection… Well beggars can’t be choosers they say.


My first week here in the Osaka University Minoh Campus (just to make things clear that I’m not here on some otaku pilgrimage, it’s actually SRS BSNSS and studying for me here… oh who am I kidding :P) has been memorable for the oddest of things – from the expected language barrier problems (it’s not called moonspeak for nothing… Most locals I’ve met so far are rather reluctant to speak English if at all and would rather bear my broken phrases and wild hand gestures. The most fluent English I’ve heard so far is from the cafeteria lady in our dorm, lol) to the unexpected unsavouries of dorm life (let’s just say you might want to consider it a while before you clean under you’re the bed in your new room...). Many thanks goes to our Malaysian senpais for guiding us through those first few days and giving us the head start we needed in experiencing this very new Japanese university life (quite different from what's portrayed n Moyashimon, fortunately or not). The hanami (flower viewing) at Banpaku-kinen-kouen is of particular note, it would be rather futile on my part to try to put the whole first time seeing a sakura-lined street experience into words, so here’s a couple of choice pics to compensate for that (bear with these though, I’m the kind of shutterbug who knows naught about light exposure and camera settings and whatnot -_-“)

Pink Supervisor?

Okay, after a while they all start looking the same... Photography just isn't my thing -_-"

On the anime front (This being an anime blog after all and this being the land it all comes from), suffice to say a second-hand television (the reception is actually affected whenever I move within the room -_-“) has been a small salvation from the lack of anime from the usual sources. Though I would like to remember my first time watching an actual anime broadcast on Japanese television to be something other than gawking confusedly at the first episode of Macross F which just appeared on screen suddenly as I flipped channels one late night... In the end I spent less time trying to figure out what was going on than the time trying to guess what show I was watching that involved green-haired loli and a woman singing in space. Having never seen anything from the Macross franchise, this wasn’t something I was planning on watching, but again, beggars can’t choose. I told myself the same thing as I watched the premiere of Kirarin Revolution’s third season -_-“ (I can’t believe it’s outlasting Full Moon wo Sagashite!). Also on the new season front, managed to catch Soul Eater which turned out to be a mashup of every shounen anime I’ve ever come in contact with, only with BONES giving it a little Ouran flair (Watch out for them arrows!). I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t miss Toshokan Sensou this week =P As for everything else I’ve missed, thank god for the internet again!

Well that's all for now, a week's worth of anime and blog posts on the Nano aren't going to watch or read themselves. And there's the whole fully settling down absorbing the local culture to do as well...

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Tondemo Nothing!'s One Month Anniversary (amongst other things...)

As the date shifts and February (which got that special extra day this year) gives way to March, today marks the first month of my GIVING IT ALL I'VE GOT on this blog... A small achievement really, but still one worth celebrating (If you notice, this blogger is prone to celebrating just about anything on this blog =P). So here's to the first official month of Tondemo Nothing! a venture I hope to continue for, well, many more months to come! On behalf of this blog, I'd like to thank anyone who's come through this blog to take a peek at the 20-odd articles up so far, and a special thanks goes to usagijen over at scrumptious who posted the first ever comment on Tondemo Nothing! *claps*

Oh, but that's not all there is to celebrate today...


Well if the pic doesn't just give it away... Not only am I celebrating this blog turning 1 month old today, but as of today this little blogger's turning one year older ^^ (Okay, maybe I'm not as 'little' as I like to be and I'm certainly much older than the cake suggests...) That's right, it's also a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to issa-sa today!!! *solitary applause from the self-absorbed panda that I am =P*

(The real Issa only celebrates his in November btw)

Since my last post had to do with anime character birthdays, it only made sense to check up which character(s) I shared a birthday with. The result...

March 1: Misaka Kaori (Kanon)

Not exactly my favourite Kanon girl (Oh, what a killjoy I am), but you can't exactly pick the day you were born, can you? So to Kaori-chan, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! おたんじょうび　おめでとう!!!

(This is strangely looking very much like the recent birthday post by Kurogane... who happens to be my senpai by a year and a month btw, unless either of us is lying about our age =P)

Also born on March 1st : Street Fighter's Chun Li (LOL!) and apparently someone named Gouda Yuu from Full Metal Panic! (someone enlighten me on this one since I can't seem to remember anyone by this name in the series). On the seiyuu front, it's also おたんじょうび　おめでとうございます to Nogawa Sakura and Kashiwakura Tsutomu. (Yay!!)

Nogawa Sakura is recognizable as Nemu from Da Capo, Hinaichigo from Rozen Maiden, and more recently as Seto no Hanayome's Luna and Frog girl A on Kimikiss :P Personally my favourite role from Nogawa-san is Ayumi from the wildly hilarious Magikano ^^

Kashiwakura Tsutomu is credited as as the sound director for the Ai Yori Aoshi series (which I should remind myself to watch one of these days). As to his seiyuu performances, most of his roles don't seem too familiar to me, but I will remember him for his Barabaraman-sensei on Akazukin Chacha.

To anyone else whose birthday is today, here's wishing you a Happy Birthday (too!), and to everyone else, enjoy this 1st of March for what it's worth =D

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Happy Leap Year-Day... err... 29th of February?

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Heck, it's a day that comes only once every four years, it deserves to be celebrated, no? And it gives me an excuse to do one of these image heavy posts than having to wrack my brains out typing out a serious one At any rate, if celebrating this 29th of February for the sake of celebrating it isn't your thing, then you can join me in commemorating the rare birthdays of one rose bride and one CLAMP bishounen.


So here's wishing a once in four years Happy Birthday to Himemiya Anthy, the Rose Bride from that wonderfully enigmatic yet strangely absorbing series which was Revolutionary Girl Utena. It's a series with an interesting mix of unconventional imagery and original story-telling which makes it an instant classic, and one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the show is the that of the Rose Bride Anthy - what sinister secrets does her complacent doormat-ish veneer really hide...?

Those who have watched the series should remember the somewhat artificial innocence which surrounds Anthy's persona, whereas those who've seen her in the Adolescence Apocalypse movie (which is a compelte retelling of the series, mind you) will see her as more feisty flirty creature... But to those who aren't familiar with either, Anthy is still famed for being a classic Yuri icon in anime together with the 'princely' Utena, if you're at all into that sort of thing ^^


Anthy and ChuuChuu at the end of the series. I have to say that the ending of Utena felt very inconclusive yet extremely satisfactory at the same time. *Spoiler: Watching Himemiya finally breaking free from her brother's shackles and walking out of the school to search for Utena (wherever she may be) while Rose & Release played in the background (which is basically Masami Okui ~La la la~ing to the OP song - a must listen) turned out to be one of the most strangely satisfying and fitting endings to an anime I've ever had the chance to watch. *

Indeed, Himemiya Anthy is not-so-innocent as she first seems... The biggest mystery that comes to mind when I see her though is how she manages all that hair whenever she appears in public!

Also celebrating his hard to come by birthday is Kinomoto Touya from Cardcaptor Sakura. おたんじょうび　おめでとう! Touya's claim to fame as Sakura's teasing brother comes from being part job-hopping sister-stalking siscon, and part sister's-crush-stealing BL icon. (Hmm, this post is turning out to be more yuri/yaoi-centric than I expected) And of course, how can I not mention that he's voiced by awesome Seki Tomokazu ^^?

Touya is the typical older sibling who enjoys tormenting his younger sister (being an older sibling myself, I'll just say it's one of those unwritten rules of family life =P) while 'secretly' looking out for her in the not-very-rare case that the Cardcaptor gets into a pinch. This he does while working at his 101 (and perhaps more) part-time jobs :S Talk about industriousness. Sakura of course, being the oblivious little moe magical girl that she is never really notices this (and many other things throughout the course of the series) as she's too busy capturing stray Clow cards while hiding the magical aspect of her life from her onii-chan.

There's snow! And bunnies! How could I resist??? ^^

Those who've watched Cardcaptor Sakura can fully attest to the legitimacy of the Touya X Yukito pairing which for once is not just the product of collective fangirls' imagination, unless you're willing to turn a big blind eye towards the proceedings in the later episodes. Spoiler: Yukito openly turns down poor Sakura for her brother, lol. No surprise really, CCS being a CLAMP work after all, slash inevitably works its way in like it or not =P

Well, to these two classic characters, here's wishing you a Happy Leap Year-Day Birthday from Tondemo Nothing!

(And if anyone gives a hoot about me using images I obviously wantonly took from the net, feel free to voice yourself and I will most graciously remove the offending image and replace it with some other image I borrowed from some other source which I've failed to credit)

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It's a bit sudden but...

Awesome, Tondemo Nothing! has made it into Anime Nano! Thanks hung! For those who're new here, welcome, issa-sa here (that's 'me' in the pic, first from the right, for those not acquainted to Animal Yokocho). Don't expect me to be always 'overly innocent' and the 'soft spoken panda' as the MAL synopsis describes Issa - I'll try, but no promises here =P

Expect to see more anime-inspired rants to come (yea, yea, I know, real goundbreaking stuff here...) which will likely be frequently punctuated by references to a certain favourite 'kiddy show' of mine - and if I succeed in inducing a reader to actually watch AniYoko, then I'll consider it a job well done on my part ^^ I would also casually mention too that it would be great if a.f.k. (or anyone with the skills) continue subbing the sadly neglected show, but it looks like they already have their hands full this season with Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (which must be a really challenging project if the currently available episodes are anything to go by), so I'll keep my patience for now...

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Who Moved My CHOCS???

Had a few more 2007 Flashback posts to toss up... But no, today being Valentines/Cynic Singles' Appreciation Day and all, I thought this post would be more in order... (In other words I'm too brain-drained to do any more serious posts for now, so I'll just settle with a fluffy rant with the excuse that I just realized what day it was today... being a hikikomori makes it all too easy to lose track of time after all)

Truth be told, I have nothing much of my own to say about this particular date of crass commercialism and hypocritic idealism... Err, scratch that, said too much already. *ahem* So instead I'll just rant on about how miffed I am that we don't practise celebrating V-day the way the Japanese do -

I WANT MY GIRI (OBLIGATORY) CHOCOLATES!!!

For the uninitiated, the Japanese, being the Japanese after all, have their own version of how this day is to be celebrated, and if sources are to be trusted, it might as well be called Chocolate Day (which suits me just fine =P). Basically women spend a ton of money on chocolates to give out to their male friends/colleagues/loved ones (Crass commercialism 4tw!). The last group obviously gets the fancier stuff (Honmei-chocolates) while the rest simply get the Giri-chocos - which basically says you're special to me and all, but I can't afford to spend as much time and effort on you ;D

In anime, girls are traditionally depicted in spending their own efforts and 'making' these chocolates themselves (which really boils down to melting bought chocolate into shaped moulds or the occasional truffle... mmmm.... Truffles...). Many a time, a character with absolutely no cooking prowess will have to seek the help of a domestic goddess from her circle of friends to educate her in this delicate art, and this is usually prompted by said girl realizing feelings for a usually dense boy. Said boy will be subjected to girl's furious blushing as she finally musters up the courage to hand the chocolates to the target of her affections (usually with much dawdling around for the whole day) only she will try too damned hard to appear nonchalant about it and pass them off as the mere obligation variety, while repeating unnecessarily loudly "D-d-don't misunderstand this. It's only giri-choco..." Reference: any harem anime with a Valentine's Day scenario and at least one tsundere.

A 'typical' Valentines Day scenario gone wrong.

Of course, all this supposed effort is not for naught... A month later on March 14th, the Japanese (and as far as I know only the Japanese) celebrate the so-called White Day, when the chocolate receiving men of Valentines become the chocolate givers to return the favour to the ladies... Fair enough, I suppose, seeing that love (for chocolates) is something that should be shared =P At any rate, the person who thought this whole idea up must be some cunningly money-minded confectioner(Woo-hoo commercialism!).

The typical White Day scenario in anime, btw, is when useless male lead conveniently forgets or has some dumb excuse for remembering White Day and as such is subjected to the torment of wrathful girl.

Anyways, this year's V-Day will probably be of no particular importance to me, shall probably be having dinner with loved ones (i.e. family) out at some hawker centre (lol) to avoid the icky jostle of couples in 'posher' establishments. My anime viewing will go on as usual, I certainly won't be expecting myself to rewatch stuff like Lovely Complex or Tokyo Marble Chocolate (or the School Days Valentines OVA, LOL. Speaking of which...). Meanwhile I shall be miffing about the current absence of chocolate coming my way... Stuff is is probably wayyyy to overpriced this time of year anyways (bloody commercialism), so I'll just have to be satisfied with whatever little's still left in the fridge T.T

Here's wishing everyone a 'Happy' V-Day (hey, fellow single-tons, think of all the money you're saving!), whether you're spending it with loved ones (2-D or 3-D), the internet, or just treating it as any other day ;P Now if you excuse me, I have a fridge to raid...

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Rats... Disappearing for a while...

Just a last minute post before I disappear for a while for Chinese New Year. After being abroad for a while, it's great being back home in time to spend this annual celebration with the usual company, i.e. family + extended family + friends. There's a chance I won't be able to celebrate next year's on familiar ground though (for reasons I'll go into some other time), so looking forward to the next few days' worth of food, festivities, and monetary increment =P (though if the Kaiji bug bites, the new year may see me poorer instead >.<) The first day of the Lunar New Year is, as of now, officially a day away. So for followers of the Chinese Zodiac, now's the time to bid farewell to the year of the Pig and usher in the year of the Rat. For fellow Fruits Basket fans, this means it's bye bye Kagura, and hello Yuki !


Now, personally, I have nothing against Rats (both rodents and humans born in their year, which include my lovely mom =D) or Yuki in particular, but my Furuba loyalties definitely lie more towards Kyo, the shunned cat of the pack. Not only does his kitty form come in my favourite colour, but of the two, Kyo gets more development in the anime (and also the manga, I hear hmm...) and it certainly helps that he's voiced by the awesome Seki Tomokazu =P
Unfortunately enough, the cat doesn't even show up in the Chinese Zodiac, much less have its own year due to some sneaky circumstances... In Fruits Basket, they use the story that the ratty Rat misinforms the Cat about the date of the great race, causing the kitty to be a no-show in the end. The version I learnt is the more sinister one... Rat and Cat race together as friends, but while crossing the river on the back of the Ox, ratty Rat pushes the Cat into the river...
Thus the Rat comes in first in the race, while the Cat is nowhere to be found... Any wonder why the two animals maintain such a volatile relationship till now?

Like Tohru in Fruits Basket, I naturally feel rather bad for the poor Cat in the tale (though in reality, I have no actual affinity for cats, =P). I won't actually be petitioning for an actual Year of the Cat like she does (it's not ever happening, lol), but I was thinking that perhaps I'd treat this year as the Year of the Rat (ext. Cat) for the sheer heck of it! I doubt that the ratty Rat would actually concede to this, but I figure it owed that much to the Cat after what it did...

Of course, if you're not at all into Fruits Basket, you could always celebrate the Year of the Dango, XD

Anyways, it'll be an early morning tomorrow when we leave for my dad's hometown (we go to my mom's on the 3rd day of CNY), hoping to beat the traffic pileup caused by other families also making yearly pilgrimage. Hopefully I won't be put in charge of the driving since this so-called 'short' post is well eating into my sleeping time... I'll just end here by wishing everyone celebrating (and even those who aren't) an early

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR

and may the Year of the Rat/Cat/Dango? bring you lots of wealth, health, happiness, prosperity, and anything else you could wish for!

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