I never thought I'd go back here.

Why hello there, blogspot, I haven't written in you for so long. XD

Just some quick updates, I guess, before I get to the main topic of this post.

Nora Manga collection: Finished! Yay~! I've finally finished collecting all nine volumes. Wow. Now, if only I would ever get around to unbinding them and scanning them, that would be even better. But seeing as I'm such a lazy person, and that I've got zero (try negative) motivation to continue the Nora scanlation project, then I guess this venture is a bust. It's not that I've lost love for the series. It's just that I've lost reason to continue with scanlating Nora, since there's already another group doing it. :3 Head on over to MangaFox to see that.

Vassalord collection: I'm stuck at volume three, haha. But there seems to be news about volume four coming late this year... anyway, I'll still be collecting the Vassalord manga. Don't know about scanlating, though... I'd probably do it, since there's no one else doing it. : |

Switch collection: Haha, I've gotten into the Switch fandom after rewatching the two OVAs. I have volumes 1-11, still looking for 12. I've seen 13 in Comic Odyssey, but I haven't bought it yet, since I didn't want to spoil myself. Volume 14's coming out this year too, I heard.  Haha, and MiranoSand is an awesome band. :3 

Now the meat of the discussion: On banning of scanlations, scanlators and manga hosts.

MangaHelpers is dead. The US-Japan Manga distributors alliance made it commit suicide. They're thinking of putting up OpenManga as a replacement, but it's still in its infancy. You can read more about it here and here. 

And OneManga's following suit. It's already said its goodbyes to the manga community, and it's really annoying to see it go. Not because there would no longer be any more scanlated manga, but because it just made it a little bit harder for fans to get the scanlations. It's not like the disappearance of a few manga readers and hosts will spell apocalypse for scanlations. Really. Scanlations existed even before these manga readers, and they will continue to exist without them. Fans will just have to be diligent again. Oh, and polite towards scanlators, of course. Read more here, if you want.

God, I hope people, specially the ones from manga-distributing/publishing companies, realize how the banning of scanlations will not solve its proliferation in the internet. This is not the way to get rid of them, corporate! Banning them does not solve the core issues, does not address the real reasons why they exist in the first place. And I think that in banning scanlations, in going about this like you have, you are alienating and discriminating against your target audience... and I don't think you can afford to do that. There are other ways to solve this crisis. 

That said, I wish fans would take this opportunity to finally let corporate know what we feel about their actions. We shouldn't just sit still and wait for them to decide for us. We are the consumers, and we should have a say on how things are done, since we are ultimately the ones who are affected. Fans, let's go online, find other fans and talk about these issues. This is the only way we can let corporate know that we are being affected, and not in a good way. If we continue making a fuss about it, sooner or later, they will be forced to listen to us.

I know a lot of people are worried about scanlations being banned, but not a lot talk. The thing is, we should talk. Talking about it is the only thing we can do, and it's the thing that will get us heard by corporate. And they will have to listen, they will be forced to listen, if all we do is talk about this. We are the consumers. We are as important to their business as the source of the manga they sell. It sounds strange, but it's true. It's not all about the corporate, guys. Rather, it's all about us, and how they should consider what we have to say.

Wow. I'm still alive. I thought by now I'd have already killed myself. Having a long vacation seriously isn't good for me. I get all broody. All these suicidal thoughts pop into my head... it's a real wonder why I'm still not dead.

Anyway, it's a good thing there are some updates for this week, huh? Rather, they came out a week ago, but I was too busy hiding the knives and other pointy things from myself. I wouldn't put it past me to use a needle to attempt suicide, especially when I'm in one of those moods. Angry. Full of angst. Suicidal. Like the one I'm in now.

I don't really know why I get this way. There's no logical source for all the negative feelings. I remember the first time I've ever felt something like this... it was when I was listening to this really preppy-happy crack-ish song. In the middle of it I suddenly felt the urge to kill myself. Weird. I decided then to keep still and not reach for the scissors just a foot away from me.

ANYWAY, before I decide to kill myself with electrical wires, I'll get over the updates...


Bleach: Chapter 340

Focus now goes back to Ichigo's side in Hueco Mundo. We see Renji, Chad and Rukia trying to beat the crap out of some mean hollow-arancar things. Ichigo is, of course, battling with the ever poker-faced Ulquiorra. They some really stupid shit that doesn't even amount to a paragraph. Yay for plot movement. NOT.

So the series disappoints me again, for the nth time around. I don't even know why I keep hoping that some weird miracle happens, and we'll be treated to some super-special-golden-edition-secret-chapter-which-reveals-at-least-enough-plot-to-keep-the-fans-interested. Of course, I should already learn. Really. It's not going to happen.



Naruto: Chapter 430 (Too lazy to link the ddl, so let's just go to the online reading shit. :D)

Sage!Naruto is so cool. As for Konoha, well... the village is really gone. And Naruto's really mad. And he's really cool. In the manga. Because the manga is black-and-white. And the sage markings are colored. So they look like shades of black. In the manga. Which makes the markings in his eyes look like eyeliner. Yay for jrocker!Naruto. XDDDD


Aaah, but Naruto's really powerful now. I wonder what SasUKE will when he sees the new [hotter] Naruto. [Maybe he'd drool?] Aaaah, you go Naruto. Beat the crap out of Pain! Show him who's [dom] boss! Beat that arrogant ass [with your kinky whip]!


[But then again, Pain's the one who looks all punk-ish. Does that mean he's seme? XD]



Katekyo Hitman Reborn: Target 223'

More of Xanxus and his kickass-ness. XD


Somehow, the suspicious deaths of Fran and Bel have been confirmed. They're alive. ... .... ..... ........ Wait, that makes the deaths not confirmed, doesn't it? But how should I put that.. It's been confirmed that their deaths aren't confirmed.. huh, what? Wait, that's completely wrong...

It's been confirmed that they faked their deaths... I guess that sums it up. Fran did the whole faking thing, of course. [Damn, and I really wanted to see the squirt fight.]

But it's still good, since his highness Lord Xanxus was forced to fight. If you can call what he did "fighting" anyway... Jeez. He was just sitting there, the lame ass. Still, he managed to kill[?] Jill/Riesel. And that freaky elephant-weilding sidekick butler of his, what was his name? Ogna-something, I don't remember. Neither do I care, really. All I know is they're dead [somewhat], and Xanxus is seriously going to be pissed if that pansy long-haired shark-of-a-commander of his doesn't get back soon with his [man]meat.


Some other stuff I've gotten my grubby little paws on:

Reborn anime:

I'm aware that the anime has reached up to 100+. Yay for them. Whatever. So I stopped watching at episode 95 --- around the training time for the Millefiore attack, just after Tsuna undergoes the hedgehog training. To keep myself from using the butterknife to carve out my intestines, I tried watching it again... and got immediately reminded why it was that I stopped watching it in the first place. Anyway, I've stopped again at episode 104. Wonder if I'll ever continues watching the other ones... :-|


Toradora!:

Fun little shoujo anime I just surprisingly stumbled upon. Yes dear reader, you read that correctly. galeaya is following a shoujo series. Kill the bastard traitor, yarrr!


Anyway, about the series. Main character is this scary-looking kid named Takasu Ryuuji. Kid's not really mean, it's just his face. He's the not-so-typical high school kid, can do all the chores perfectly and is a big of a neat freak. He gets satisfaction from getting rid of molds, for crap's sake. :-|

Anyway, he's the main character #1. #2 is this cute but brutal little girl names Aisaka Taiga, and by brutal, I mean really brutal. She's the exact opposite of Ryuuji, all cute and small and really harmless-looking, but when she starts to speak and kick, she everything but.

Plot: Taiga's best friend is Ryuuji's crush. Ryuuji's best friend is Taiga's crush. The two get together in order to set themselves up with each other's best friends. It seems a little one-sided match-making at first, since Taiga's just practically bullying Ryuuji into it... but further along, they develop this weird but comfortable friendship. Which is misunderstood by everyone as a serious relationship. Which they deny. But which they develop. Or something cheesy like that. <3

Not the usual series I'd go for, surely. But what attracted me to it was one simple thing. No, it wasn't the strong-type girl main character, nor was it the coming-together plot. It wasn't Ryuuji's personality, nor was it the way he treats Taiga. It wasn't because of some non-main character, either. Nor was it because of the light-hearted comedy. What attracted me the most... was Ryuuji's short pink boxershorts.

: D

Yay for the new manly boxershorts. -sigh- Ryuuji's ass doesn't look all that round, but the damn boxer shorts make up for it. Seriously. It's worth watching the whole series just to get a glimpse of the pink shorts in every opening sequence. Bonus if they're featured within the show. XD And of course, I watch it too for Ryuuji's obsession with mold. I like obsessive guys. Specially the stupid ones, yeah.

Anyway, enough about the mold and the pink shorts. The series is nice, and it's one of those unusual ones you'd see in my to-watch-list. Very very very light-hearted, but it has its serious moments, too. And of course, watch out for Ryuuji's mom's boobs. XD

[Sometimes I doubt my sexuality... but then I realize, it's not really that important.]


Gintama:

Finally the crunchyroll shit is working for my country. DAMN.

But then again, they've reset their episodes to the first.. wth. Anyway, to this time only four episodes are available. By four, I meant the 1-hr first episode + 3 other episodes. Good grief, how the hell is it ever going to catch up to the latest episode at this rate? D:


I started looking for Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom. I read about it some months ago, I think I even made a post about it. Found some manga merchandise, and I think I'd be able to handle buying it. What irks me is the shipping fee, which is more that the actual fee I'd have to pay for the goods. Which is idiotic. D:

SO I'm planning to buy it with another series, in order to avail of the free shipping. The other one I'm trying to get is a series called Switch. No idea if it's related to the Nagayama Takashi-affiliated Switch stage play, and I don't really particularly care. At any rate, Switch has about 8-9 volumes, same as Nora. All of the Switch manga are already available in English [non and preorder], but Nora so far only has four. Wonder if it would be better to just get them when the Nora series is complete...

Anyway, I'm determined to have the manga. If I ever do succeed, I promise to scan and post. Though I would be breaking the law technically.. -sweatdrop- When I do get it, I'll just say so in a post, and interested people can just PM me or something. So I know who I'll send the files to. : D


I ordered some stuff from the net again. -sweatdrop- I'm supposed to receive one silver ring, one set of silver earings, one Vongola Storm Guardian ring, one Oretachi no Joy album and one Oretachi no Yakusoku album. The silver ring and earings I got as gifts from two friends, and they're supposed to be delivered to our house. They were ordered on the 20th of December, and it takes about 2-3 weeks to make them. So that means it can arrive next week.

The Vongola Storm Guardian ring I got from someone over at LJ. She's shipping from Singapore through registered airmail, so from experience I think it's going to arrive in 2-3 weeks time as well. So it might come next week or the week after next.

The albums.. well, those are the old and new character albums, the new featuring a solo from Tsuna and both the old and new duets from my OTP. The actual release for the new one is on the 21st of January, so I might not be able to get them before the last week of January, maybe not even until the first two weeks of February.

I'm kind of excited and happy about my purchases. I like collecting things. Maybe they're the only ones keeping me sane. -deep sigh-



[Which reminds me! I promised pictures of my Gintama stuff, but I forgot. I'll post them soon.]