April Favourites ’22

I can’t quite believe it’s the end of another month already! I mean, one more day and…

Gif taken from Giphy

Sorry, not sorry. 😛 But yes, it’s going to be May tomorrow and I can’t quite believe we are a month away from being halfway through 2022.

Not going to lie, I’m a mixture of excited and nervous for May for a few reasons. It’s going to be nice to have another long bank holiday weekend this weekend, but in a couple of weeks I’ll be going to see My Chemical Romance! Regular readers and friends will know I have been waiting for two years to see them now due to Covid, so I’m glad the time is finally coming up! I printed off my tickets recently so I’m almost ready to go. I’m so excited, but sort of nervous too for many reasons. I haven’t been to a gig since 2017 when I saw cKy, which was a longgg time ago now! I’m also feeling anxious about Covid too. It would suck for both me and Dane to leave the gig with Covid… That being said, it’ll be worth it at this point as I’ve been waiting long enough to go and see MCR! I’m going to try and save up some monies towards merchandise, as I can see me buying a lot of it… Especially t-shirts and hoodies. 😛

Alongside going to see MCR, I’m also planning to go and visit Emily (link to blog) whilst we’re in Milton Keynes! We did try and meet up before/during the cKy gig but it didn’t happen sadly. I’m so excited to meet her! We’ve been blogging friends for as long as I can remember now (over six years I feel!) so it’ll be lovely to see her, and her furry companions too. Go and check her blog out by the way, I have linked it for you all. 🙂

Alongside that, I don’t know what other plans me and Dane have for May, maybe plan something in for our anniversary in June, as well as planning/seeing friends too? We shall see!

One final thing I want to mention is how excited I am for this months content! I have some cute posts coming up in the next couple of weeks and I cannot wait to share them all with you. I know April was a bit of a quieter month but I was so busy over Easter, I didn’t really get much time for myself, let alone sitting down to write.

For now however, lets get on with this months favourites!

Favourite Beauty Product – Peripera – Ink Mood Drop Tint – Bubble Berry and Berry Vibe.

With my March pay I decided to treat myself to some new lip products from YesStyle. I really love wearing lipstick, but as the years have passed, I’ve worn it less and less. I used to live for my MAC satin lipsticks, then liquid lipsticks and now I’m more about my lip stains/tints and glosses. I’ve always found Korean brands lip tints are the best all rounder for lip products, they hydrate, leave gorgeous colour and are affordable. I’ve tried Peripera in the past and really do rate their products highly, so I decided to order myself a couple of lip tints from their ink mood drop range. Bubble Berry and Berry Vibe are both pink lip tints, one being darker than the other. Bubble Berry is described as, “cool berry pink” and Berry Vibe is described as, “bright berry plum”. Alongside the colours being gorgeous and wearable for any occasion, the product itself isn’t sticky, easy to apply and lasts for hours! It’s perfect and I’m so glad to finally have some pink lip tints in my collection.

Favourite Film – Jackass Forever.

As a massive Jackass fan, I have a lot to say about the latest movie. First of all, I have been a fan since I was ten years old in 2000. I adore all the TV show and the movies and if anything they got me through my dissertation for my BA studies at university, as well as some darker times. I’m also a fan of the cKy movies and Viva La Bam. With this being said, Ryan Dunn and Bam Margera not being part of the fourth movie broke my heart a little and I knew from the start that it wouldn’t feel like Jackass to me when I watched it. I finally saw the fourth instalment in April and I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it. There were stunts that had clearly been done before by others and in my opinion, there were clearly stunts that had been written by Bam (I don’t know if anyone else thought this too?). The new cast were great, I have to say, they appeared to be up for anything (and judging by some of their tattoos, had been Jackass fans from a young age like me) and I feel like stunts they did now, were stunts that the Jackass crew back in the day wouldn’t have done. If you don’t know, this is Johnny Knoxville’s last Jackass film… Or so he says, so for his final film I just felt like it was lacking so much and that in itself made me sad. I’m intrigued to see if they do another TV show for the new cast, or another film. I feel like the films should have been left at three, after watching this one. Again, as I said, I didn’t love or hate it, but sadly I think Jackass should be done now, or at least just leave the new cast to do their own thing and retire the old? I don’t know. Let me know what you think! Please excuse the word vomit here by the way, I have so many thoughts about it haha.

Favourite TV Show/Anime – SPY x FAMILY.

With new season anime, comes a new anime show to share with you all! SPY x FAMILY is new for this season and is one me and Dane have been watching for the past couple of weeks since it began. I know this was a manga first of all and one quite a few people I know read and love. I wasn’t massively fussed about watching the anime when it was announced, but seeing as Dane put it on, I thought, “Why not!” and now I really enjoy it! As the name suggests, it’s about a spy family, but with a twist. I don’t want to say too much in case of spoilers, but Twilight, a spy, has to create a family in order to complete one of his missions. The girl he adopts has telepathy and the woman he marries is an assassin. Due to her telepathy the girl knows what her adoptive parents true lives are, but the parents don’t know each others. So far it’s a mixture of funny and keeps you on the edge of your seat. I adore all of the characters so far and Anya (the girl) reminds me of a diclonius from Elfen Lied due to her pink hair and the strange black hair bun covers she wears (which remind of the diclonius horns). I definitely recommend you checking it out and personally, I much prefer the sub to dub, it just works better.

Favourite Music – Saliva – Back Into Your System.

Over the Easter bank holiday me and Dane decided to deep clean our kitchen. It had been long overdue and with family coming over for Dane’s birthday and Easter, we decided to finally do it. During our time cleaning, we decided to put on nu metal from the early noughties, which is a genre of rock music that we both love. At one point Saliva came on and it reminded me of their third album Back Into Your System that I LOVED back in the day and listened to religiously. I remember exactly how I discovered it, through looking for clips from Elfen Lied the song “Weight Of The World” plays against the top of it, which I fell in love instantly. It’s still one of my favourite songs and I’ve honestly missed listening to this album.

Image taken from Wikipedia

Favourite Game – Raft.

This is a game Dane bought for me a while ago so we could play together. Before and during Easter we played it quite a bit, as it’s a really nice, relaxing game to sit and play after a busy day of work. We’ve recently stopped playing it as much as we’ve found it’s getting a little repetitive, but I’m pretty sure we’ll pick it up again some day. The premise of the game is you need to survive and built your raft up. You do occasionally float by islands, which you can stop at to gather more resources, you pretty much live on your raft though. We didn’t realise at first, but there is a story to this game! Our understanding of this is that you play as siblings who need to find their family through radio messages and more. I don’t think we’ve done a lot with the story yet, the idea of the surviving is fun to us! I highly recommend this, but more so if you can play with friends, as it’s just a bunch easier!

Just a few of my favourite things…

Loungefly Cinnamoroll backpack.

To give you all a sneak peak of one of the posts coming up in May on my blog, I wanted to briefly share my latest Loungefly addition, and boy, do I love it! Easter I decided to finally pick up the Cinnamoroll Loungefly backpack, after debating it for months. I’ve been using it since it arrived last weekend and I really love it. It’s comfortable to wear, cute and fits everything quite nicely. It does kind of feel on the small side, but that’s probably because I carry around too much stuff. I think my only worry with this bag is the obvious one, it’s white, so I worry it’ll be stained and dirty easily. That being said, life is too short for regret. I wanted this bag for a while and now I finally have it, I’m going to use it! I snagged it for a bargain of £45 from Pop Figures. They’re Midlands based so this arrived in a couple of days after ordering. I’ll be talking about this bag on a blog post in the next couple of weeks!

Mini Egg nails.

As we all know, Easter was a couple of weeks ago and just before it I was due a new set of gel nails. I decided to go for Mini Egg inspired nails, as not only are they my favourite chocolate, but since 2019 (when I started getting gel manicures) I’ve always wanted to do these nails. So, FINALLY I’ve been able to do it! They’re getting redone this weekend and I’m feeling an emo theme, ready for when I go to see My Chemical Romance. I’m actually really sad to see these go, but I can always get them done again soon. 😀

Animal Crossing Timmy & Tommy amiibo.

On Dane’s birthday we decided to go out and do some geeky shopping and I FINALLY snagged the Timmy & Tommy amiibo figure I was after! This wasn’t cheap at £18, but a lot of places sell it for £20 and up, so I can’t complain too much. Plus Dane bought it for me as he knew how much I’ve wanted it. It’s such a cute figure and in amazing condition. I gave it a good clean when I came home and it’s now in place with all the other Animal Crossing amiibo figures. Now I only have Kicks left to get and potentially Smash Bros Isabelle. The shop I picked it up from is an independent vintage game shop in Birmingham called Vintage Gamer. If you’re in Birmingham like me, or fancy a day trip, I HIGHLY recommend! There’s so many vintage games and consoles, you could spend hours there. Plus the staff are really lovely to chat to, which is always good.

Pokemon Vulpix Flocked POP! vinyl.

This is a new addition to my very small POP! vinyl collection, but one I just couldn’t resist when I saw people talking about it on Instagram. I do love some of the Pokemon POP! vinyl figures as they look adorable, and Vulpix is always one I’ve had on my list to get as and when, so when I saw Smyths had the flocked version, I pre ordered and collected it later that day! It’s still sat in the box, as I’m unsure if I ever want to worry the flocking on it gets dusty/dirty and ruined! It’s such a cute little figure and I’m so glad I picked it up now. 🙂

Lazy Oaf Rainbow Sally t-shirt dress.

Finally I want to share with you one of my recent finds on Vinted! The image isn’t mine, but it is from the listing I bought the dress off of, so it’s fine. 😛 I haven’t yet taken a photo of the dress, nor worn it as I’ve been so busy, but I’m sure I’ll wear soon and post all about it! Anyway, this Lazy Oaf rainbow sally dress has been on my Lazy Oaf grail list for as long as I can remember. Every time I’ve found this dress for sale on second hand websites it would go for silly prices well over £60, and I just don’t have time for spending money that much on pre loved items, no matter what brand. So, when I saw this pop up on Vinted in my size for £25, I knew I had to snap it up! A couple of days later it arrived, was washed and is now waiting in my wardrobe to be worn! I’m so excited to wear it, it’s so comfy to wear and with some tights, and maybe my heart buckle belt, I’ll look adorable and ready for the summer!!!

So, there we have it guys, my favourites from April! I honestly can’t believe we’re already into May tomorrow, this month has flown and it’s been quiet nice to say the least, which I’m thankful for.

As we’re in another bank holiday weekend this weekend, what are you plans for it? Plus, what items are in your favourites list this month? Make sure to let me know in the comments.

Until next time, take care and have a lovely weekend.

My Dress-Up Darling

Image taken from My Anime List

I don’t know if I’ve ever written a blog post purely dedicated to a manga/anime series before, but no time like the present, eh?

I really wanted to write about My Dress-Up Darling (Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru, which translates to The Bisque Doll That Fell in Love) today as it’s a manga/anime series I’ve really fallen in love with and it’s definitely fast become one of my favourites, which is crazy to think about. I know a lot of people have fallen head over heels for My Dress-Up Darling too and especially Marin the main female protagonist, some falling for her a little harder than others.

I know today’s post is a little different but I wanted to share my thoughts about this series as I know so many people love it and season one is now completed, so I’d like to share what I thought of it in that aspect too.

Don’t worry, there won’t be any spoilers shared here, I’m not about that life. I will however share the basic information about what the anime is all about and more.

I’m just going to get straight into it, I honestly hope you enjoy reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it.

I think the last time I was into an anime so much I had to pick up the manga to read was A Silent Voice (2017). Me and Dane had been to watch it at The Electric Cinema in Birmingham, as I’d been recommended to watch it by adverts and they were damn right to tell me about it! Forbidden Planet/Worlds Apart is literally a stone throw away from the cinema so we ventured there prior to have a nose at geeky goodness, including manga. Dane walked out with Berserk (which was standard back in the day) and I left with the first three volumes of A Silent Voice. I binge read all the volumes in a week!

The same has happened with My Dress-Up Darling where I’ve binge read volumes one to three (still not started four) of the manga after watching the anime, although I’m holding off reading volumes five to eight online until they actually come out for us in the UK. I don’t know about you guys, but I much prefer holding a manga to read instead of just scrolling pages on my phone or laptop.

The anime is based off of the manga also known as Sono Bisque Doll, which released in Japan with its first volume in January 2018, with there currently being eight volumes of the manga, with volume nine on the way! In the UK there are currently six volumes, with five and six being pre-orders. The manga released to us in the UK in April 2020. With the release of the anime and its quick popularity with anime fans alike, the manga has sold out like hot cakes, with many manga stockists apologising and popping people on wish lists. There has also been a lot of scalpers on selling websites trying to sell volumes one and three (which are the hardest to get right now) for stupid prices!

At the time of writing this post volumes two and four are the main ones you’ll find available to purchase at the moment, with five and six being pre orders for the near future. I’ve found Amazon, Forbidden Planet and Wordery have been some of the best places to find volumes for sale.

I was able to snag volumes one and two from Forbidden Planet, as well as four on Amazon. Last week I was able to finally snag volume three through a lovely seller on Depop! She didn’t scalp or put the price up at all, especially with the volume being brand new.

With that out of the way, I’m going to talk about the anime first, just because that’s what I watched prior to reading the manga. It would be weird to talk about it the other way around when that isn’t how it happened for me. There are twelve episodes in season one with the season beginning on 9th January and concluding on 27th March 2022.

My Dress-Up Darling is about Gojo, a trainee Hinamatsuri (Hina for short) doll creator who has just started his first year of high school. One day during school Gojo is in the craft room at school making some costumes for his Hina dolls when Marin sees him. Marin wants to cosplay, but isn’t very good at making costumes, so once seeing Gojo’s talent, approaches him about whether or not he can help her create her cosplay costume for a character she adores. Whilst Gojo has no experience of this, he helps Marin regardless but one cosplay turns from one to more as the story progresses.

It’s a romantic comedy, slice of life manga/anime and my perfect style of anime/manga! In all honesty I’m a sucker for slice of life, no matter what, even drama you’d find on Channel 4!

Each week I’m a sucker for how Gojo and Marin’s friendship progresses, as well as finding out more about each of the characters and what cosplay Marin will work on next.

I don’t feel like this will be a spoiler at this point, but the opening credits for the anime shows what cosplay outfits Gojo and Marin are working on together, even in the order they do them as well. The covers for the manga volumes have the same images of Marin in her cosplay too. I’m so excited to see more in the future! My favourite so far as definitely been her first.

Dane is the one who introduced me to My Dress-Up Darling. I can’t remember how it came about exactly, as we were sick for the first few weeks of January, which is of course when the anime came out. I remember he was watching it and mentioned, “Everyone is going mad for this anime online and how good the animation is. Especially compared to Berserk!” For anyone that isn’t aware (I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned it before or not…), Dane is a massive Berserk fan and like many, was disappointed with the animation style for Berserk 2016.

What got Dane into My Dress-Up Darling was, “I had seen a gif on Reddit of Marin dancing in her bikini (taken from episode two) and without sounding perverted, I really liked the animation style and character’s design. I was immediately enamoured with Marin and wanted to know more about her… Besides her bikini choices.”

The GIF in question, more frames than Berserk 2016. Image taken from Tenor

I think Dane had watched a couple of episodes before I decided to give it a go, which he was more than happy about. I watched the first episode and craved more! We’ve been happily watching each new episode every Saturday morning ever since. It’s always been something to look forward to throughout the past couple of months, especially coming up to the weekends. Since the start of the year we’ve been having regular anime weekends where we sit and binge watch any that have new episodes or ones we’ve discovered and have started to watch together.

There is a huge elephant in the room when it comes to My Dress-Up Darling and it’s the amount of fan service, or arguably… Perverse shots that are in the show. It’s a topic that has blown up all over the internet, which I can understand. I don’t get some of the scenes in question that they chose to animate, and whilst I never feel uncomfortable, I do question it. I know a lot of people have also stated after seeing the “lewd” animated scenes, they stopped watching it, as they no longer wished to support the anime. I personally think its a shame that this happens as it affects everyone who has worked on the anime in question (not just speaking about My Dress-Up Darling here!). As I said, it doesn’t personally bother me, but I do question some stuff. The animators of the show (who may have also worked on the manga too) were probably given a clear vision to be like the manga, so, they have.

As I always do, when I really fall in love with something I always like to try and get some merchandise of it, official or fan made merch at that. I’ve seen one piece of official merchandise I’d love to pick up (key chain) but I’d also love a t-shirt with Marin on, especially pulling one of her many happy faces that she’s pulling during the opening credits of the anime.

Marin is very much loved in the community right now for both her personality, as well as for how pretty and “perfect” she is. I guess it’s because we can all relate to her one way or another as anime, manga and game lovers who just want to show off how much we love characters we watch, read and play as. I’ve personally only cosplayed twice, my first time as Lucy from Elfen Lied and my second time as Cartman’s The Coon from South Park. Both times were so much fun, especially the latter as so many people were telling me and Dane (he dressed up as Kenny’s Mysterion persona) how amazing we looked.

I’d love to cosplay as so many characters and people but I just don’t think I have it in me. I’d be so self conscious the whole day in case anyone judged, if I did the character wrong and more.

So, watching My Dress-Up Darling is a nice way of seeing how people DO get their cosplays together, how happy it makes them feel, the learning processes behind it all and more. Plus the friendships Gojo and Marin make together and with others is really lovely to see. OH and to add, it’s so cool to see how they drew parts of Tokyo. Me and Dane are especially missing Japan so far this year and are craving going back, especially when watching anime where it’s set in areas we stayed/ventured to.

Now I’ve spoken a little about My Dress-Up Darling’s anime, I want to touch upon the manga a little, which I’ve been speed reading the past week since I got volume three! I won’t talk too much about it, as I’ve already spoken a lot about the anime as it is.

The manga (from what I’ve read so far) is pretty much identical to the anime. I can’t say as I’ve noticed any massive differences so far, which I like. The manga style is gorgeous to boot by the way and is very similar again to the anime. I know some manga styles differ to the style when you watch the anime (Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid being a good example of this…) but thankfully this didn’t do that.

At the time of writing this, season one of My Dress-Up Darling has come to a close and what a close it was to a show so many of us adored! I won’t say too much of what happens in the episode itself due to spoilers, etc, but for anyone who is watching (from January, or if you decide to watch it after reading this post), please make sure to continue watching episode twelve after the credits begin… There’s a bit at the end that really rounds up the season perfectly.

Overall I’ve fallen head over heels for My Dress-Up Darling, which is also bad news because now not only do I want as much merchandise from it as I can get my mitts on, but I’m also sad that the anime’s first season is coming to a close this weekend.

Image taken from Good Smile Company US Twitter

I’m already planning on watching the dub version, just so I can enjoy it all over again, as well as ordering the Marin Nendoroid when it releases too! Me and Dane have been talking about whether a DX version will release too, where Marin will have all her cosplay outfits to dress up in too! Otherwise, an additional set of outfits for this would be great. Good Smile Company would miss a trick not doing that!

If you’d like to watch My Dress-Up Darling yourself, you can find it on both Funimation and Crunchyroll!

So, have you been watching My Dress-Up Darling? If so, what do you think of it? Have you been watching the dub, or the sub? Of course, have you also read the manga? Maybe you hadn’t heard of it until now, has my post inspired you to watch? Make sure to let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!

Until next time guys, have an amazing weekend and I’ll see you in April! 🙂

December Wish List ’19

Image taken from GIPHY

How are we already halfway through the first week of December? Oh God, this week is going to quickly and I know it isn’t going to slow down anytime soon either!

I was kind of torn this year whether to just add my wish list into a “Christmas wish list” post for the whole month or to separate them… I’ve decided to go for the latter! I have loads of items on my wish list this month purely for my Japan trip and even just for myself to be honest.

I hope you enjoy the final wish list of the year! 😀

• Superdry Gracie Cable Snood Womens Scarf (link)

I could really do with a new scarf not only for the winter ahead but also for my trip to Japan. When I was looking around for a new snood, I found this gorgeous Superdry one! I’m not a massive scarf fan… In terms of “normal” ones and I much prefer a snood. I can just shove it on without any faffing about of wrapping. I really like the look of this one because of the soft borg lining inside. I can only imagine how soft and fluffy it will be during the colder months! I also really like the dark pink colour too. This being said, I would like to see this scarf in person before buying in case I don’t like the colour THAT much. 😦

• Dispel Dice Debut Collection With Sharp Edges & Inclusions (link to Kickstarter)

This is a Kickstarter I want to back so much… But I don’t know if I can justify it. 😦 It finishes in 4 days time and I know I have those days to decide if I want to back, but even so… Dispel Dice are a company I have lusted and looked at since getting into Dungeons & Dragons at the start of 2019. Now they have a Kickstarter out with “affordable” dice sets I would like to back… There are just a few factors that put me off… Price and delivery. You won’t receive the dice until August 2021, which sucks! I’ll see if I decide to back these at the last moment. 🙂

• River Island Blue Button Front Denim Mini Skirt (link)

If there is something I don’t own any of and would love to wear more, it’s skirts. I either wear jeans, leggings, joggers or dresses. I discovered this skirt last month through Helen Anderson in her “TESTING SIZE 14 HIGH STREET DENIM SKIRTS” YouTube video and I have fallen in love! I wanted to try and pick it up in the Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals but I never did. It’s something I’ll definitely take a look into picking up in the Christmas/January sales!

• Elfen Lied Omnibus Volume 2 (link)

I love Elfen Lied, it’s definitely one of my favourite anime and manga series to date and was actually the first anime I watched and manga I read. So, to say it has some fond memories and a place in my heart is pretty accurate. I already own volume 1 of the omnibus and have even pre-ordered volume 3 ad volume 4. This is a series I plan to dig into and read on days off in the run up to Christmas, as well as during the Christmas holidays from work. 🙂

• Bravissimo Jessie Skater Dress (link)

This is a dress I REALLY want at the moment! I plan to try it on at some point this week as it’s something I would like to pick up whilst it’s on offer. It’s a gorgeous black dress, which will not only be perfect for work and the party season, but also great for my 30th birthday! I don’t have any “posh” dresses if you will and often gravitate towards the same one I’ve worn for 3 years now, which is a bit shit at the best of times… I just want something pretty I can wear for evenings out with Dane and friends. 🙂 I’ve never bought clothing from Bravissmo but as I love their bras, I’m sure I’ll love this dress too!

• Animal Crossing Isabelle Plush Pass Case (link)

With my trip to Japan getting closer and closer and mine and Dane’s Suica cards now in our possession, I would really like a nice pass case to use during my trip there! I’ve eyed up this plush Animal Crossing one which is in the shape of Isabelle’s head. It has a handy pull cord on it, so if you attach this to your bag, keys, etc you can easily pull it to wherever you need it to go. It’s not cheap however, but this is something I have asked for for Christmas from Dane too… It’s something I’ll keep my eyes peeled for whilst I’m in Japan too if I don’t manage to get one beforehand.

So that’s my wish list for December overall! I know his months is really boring, but I’m saving all the awesome wish list items for Christmas Eve’s post when I write about my Christmas wish list. 🙂

I can’t believe we’re already into the 4th day of December and Christmas Day is 3 weeks today! How crazy is that, huh? 2019 has really flown by…

Aside from Christmas, what items do you have on your wish list? Make sure to let me know in the comments down below. 🙂

Until next time all, take care and I hope you’re having a good week so far.

July Wish List ’19

Where did June go? I felt like it was only yesterday that I was preparing for a nice week off with Dane and then BAM HELLO IT’S JULY! Honestly though, how shite was June weather wise? It was well and truly awful to be fair and I’m glad we’re getting some nice sunshine right now. 🙂

I’m currently sat at my dining table with a gorgeous cup of Ed’s Coffee House caramel coffee and I’m planning on writing as much as I can before I need to head out later for a D&D session! This months wish list was pretty hard to be honest with you as I’m trying to be good right now due to Japan coming up, (I know it’s 5/6 months away but it will be here before we know it!) which is boring but meh.

Anyhoo – I hope your enjoy this months haul! I feel like there’s so much Japanese inspired stuff there. 😛

• Vans x Lazy Oaf Old Skool Platform (No longer available)

I know these are limited edition and no longer available (unless you pay an absolute fucking fortune!) but I still want them. I regret not buying them so damn much when they came out last year. Like stupidly regret it. Recently I noticed someone was selling my size on eBay at a decent price. They looked legit and when the seller offered to knock £10 off – I bought them straight away. Over a week later I was chasing the seller for my shoes and ended up getting a refund. I was so pissed off… I really wanted the shoes, especially for such a bargain. I’m still on the hunt for these and if you happen to find any in a size 7 for a decent price (no more than £60 with postage!) please let me know! 🙂

• Elfen Lied Omnibus Volume 1 (link)

I cannot tell you how happy I was when I recently discovered that this manga was coming out in English. Honestly my younger 16 year old self would have been over the moon with this coming out. Basically this manga has been running in Japan since 2002 – which is nearly 20 years ago now since it first came out. This was the first manga I read, as well as the first anime I watched. Elfen Lied is pretty much what got me into the things I am today, which is amazing to be honest with you so it really does mean the world to me to finally see the manga in English.

Now you’re probably wondering, “Okay hang on Nat! You said you’ve read the manga… But it’s only just come out in English? How did you read it then?” The magic of translation my friends! 😛 Someone translated it years ago online so I remember when I bought my first laptop 10 years ago (FUCK I FEEL OLD!) I found the manga on a PDF reader and basically flicked back and forth over the pages, reading it. 😛

It looks like there will be four omnibus volumes overall, which the second one due out in October. I would love to see the anime redone – just like they’ve done with Fruits Basket recently. I’d still love to see Elfen Lied Nendoroid’s released too. 😛

• Pokemon Holiday Night Collection Ichican Kuji (link)

This is a kuji I’ve decided to do! I’ve never done one before to be perfectly honest with you so this will be a first! It just looks too good to resist having a go on. I’ve regretted not taking part in some of the Animal Crossing kujis in the past and that in itself annoys me. I’ve got this through YY Kawaii on her Instagram merch page (link and link) and the prizes are adorable! There’s a couple of plushies, some holiday travelling essentials, pots and towels. It makes a change seeing some “useful” items in a kuji as opposed to the usual charms, towels and random figures. I really hope I get some good pulls from this!

• Insert Coin Clothing Persona 4 Teddie Pocket Tee (link)

I’ve already pre-ordered this tee, but I just had to mention it here today as it’s too good not to! 😀 I LOVE Persona 5, as my readers all know and I have had a go at Persona 4 Golden (which I am currently stuck on!) which I also really love. I’m reading the Persona 4 manga too, which I actually enjoy more than the game… But this may be due to the fact I’m stuck on it… 😛 Either way I saw the cute Teddie pocket tee and just knew I had to have it! I recently bought myself an amazing black pair of mom jeans from New Look and I intend to wear them together loads throughout the summer, as well as the rest of the year. 😛 Of course I would be a fool not to wear this to Japan too.

When this tee arrives – I’ll definitely be doing a post on why I love Insert Coin Clothing’s tees so much! I have this one, as well as their Persona 5 Morgana tee too.

• Sarah Dandh Animal Crossing Mug (link to store and Twitter)

I noticed this mug was going around my Twitter feed about a week or so ago and honestly I have fallen in love with it and I really need it in my life. I really don’t need anymore mugs, but if I didn’t pick this up I would honestly be a fool and regret it until I did. I LOVE Animal Crossing and as an ex barista I also love the coffee theme of the mug. It was always one of my favourite parts of Animal Crossing: New Leaf to daily go and work my shift at The Roost Cafe, as well as sit and drink some pigeon coffee. It looks like the mugs will go on sale on Sarah Dandh’s store on 10th July – so I’ll be making sure to pick one up. 😛

• Ohayou! Good Boys (& Girls) Enamel Pin Project (link to Kickstarter)

Finally we have one of my favourite independent artists out there, who has done it again with her recently Kickstarter campaign! 😀 As soon as I saw she was going to be adding Animal Crossing designs to the campaign, I put myself down for two pins and it will be both KK Slider and Isabelle who I opt for. I actually already have an Isabelle pin by Ohayou! but it won’t hurt to have another one, will it? I don’t have a KK Slider as of yet and look how damn cute this boi is! I honestly can’t wait to get these already as I’ll wear them together on my jacket(s) as well as potential ita bag in the future. This campaign has now finished, BUT Ohayou! is a good egg and will probably have them for sale in her store anyway. 😛

So that’s my wish list for July! Again, I honestly cannot believe we are over halfway through 2019 now. It’s scaring me as not only does it mean I’m getting closer to being 30 but it also means it’s closer to us going to Japan and I am SO nervous for that!

Which items do you have on your wish lists this month? Do you have your eye on any of the items I have too? Make sure to let me know in the comments below! 😀

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a lovely week, almost the weekend now, eh?

The Opposites Book Tag

Image taken from giphy.com

I don’t feel like I’ve done and taken part in a blog tag for a while now (not going to lie, it was probably just last month… :P) so when I came across The Opposites Book Tag on Eleanor’s blog a month ago I knew I’d do it at some point.

Fast forward a month later and here we are! She tagged anyone who read her post, which I’m linking here because you need to read her answers!

I’m changing my answers up a little though and instead of talking about “normal” books, I’ll be talking about manga instead… Considering manga is the majority of what I read. 😛

I hope you enjoy this tag post!

FIRST BOOK IN YOUR COLLECTION/LAST BOOK YOU BOUGHT.

The first manga I ever bought was Azumanga Daioh and it’s one of my biggest manga books in my collection… So far anyway. 😛 I loved the anime of the same name so when I heard about a manga of it too, I knew I had to find it! It took me ages and when I finally found it online I ordered it to be told a month later that it wasn’t actually in stock as they’d said. I got a refund and headed elsewhere in search of it. I found it on eBay in the end brand new and ended up buying it for less money than I was intending to pay for it in the first place.

My most recent purchase is Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Kanna’s Daily Life Vol. 2. I LOVE this spin off series even more than the original due to how adorable it is and yet how hilarious it is at other times. I’ll soon be buying some new manga… I feel like I buy it monthly in all honesty. 😛

A CHEAP BOOK/AN EXPENSIVE BOOK.

This stands for both of the same series but I’ve spent an absolute fortune on the Nana manga in the past! It’s not really published anymore I don’t think so it can be such a hard manga to get hold of! It’s so worth it though as I think the Nana manga will be worth some serious monies in the future due to it being on a hiatus. ANYWAY I’ve spent next to sod all on many copies of this manga and other times I’ve paid through the teeth just to get a decent copy or even a brand new one.

Aside from Nana the most I have spent on manga for myself is £15.99, which I spent on the manga of Wolf Children. I regret spending that much on it, but 1. it’s hardback and 2. I picked it up in Waterstones… Of course it was expensive! 😛

A BOOK WITH A MALE PROTAGONIST/ONE WITH A FEMALE PROTAGONIST.

First of all, male protagonist! The first one that pops into my head is Hideo Suzuki from the manga, I Am a Hero. This manga is amazing and it’s thanks to Dane discovering it in Forbidden Planet that we started reading it together. He’s such a fanny at the best of times, but this is due to what appears to be a form of anxiety. He’s our hero during a zombie apocalypse in Japan and he’s such a great and real protagonist for that story. I cannot wait to see where the series goes and what the future has in store for him.

So a female protagonist eh? Oh man I could pick so many manga series with a legend of a female protagonist but I think the first one I can think of is Nana Osaki, from the manga of the same name. She’s the Nana who is a singer in a rock band and doesn’t stand for shit! Although she’s rock hard on the outside and appears untouchable, she actually has a heart of gold and is mending a broken heart throughout most of the manga. I remember when watching the anime, as well as reading the manga what a strong and bold woman she is, even though she isn’t real. I wanted to be like her as I got older and I like to think I am. 😛

A BOOK YOU READ FAST/ONE THAT TOOK YOU LONG TO READ.

If there is a series I found myself whizzing through and finishing quicker than any manga series I own to date, it’s A Silent Voice. I remember hearing about the manga thanks to the anime that came out as a film last year. I picked up a couple of volumes to read to see if I would enjoy it and I instantly fell in love. Even before me and Dane went to watch the anime I went into my local manga/comic book store and bought some more volumes! Later I bought the rest on Amazon PRIME so I could read them as soon as possible. To this day it is now one of my favourite manga series and I recommend it highly to anyone who wants to get into manga and see why it’s so amazing.

Fuck me, if there is one manga series that is taking me forever to get through, it’s definitely K-ON! and I honestly couldn’t tell you why. I think it’s because I enjoy reading it so much that I take my time to read it. I’m on my second to last volume now and I’ll be sad when I’ve finished the K-ON! series. This just means I need to find a NEW SERIES to get into. 😛

PRETTY COVER/UGLY COVER.

I don’t think I really own any pretty manga covers… If anything I love Nana for the story each volume tells about the two Nana’s and the same can go for A Silent Voice which shows off the two main characters together. I also really love A Polar Bear In Love for the adorable covers that their volumes produce! I cannot wait for Volume 3 to come out now as the cover for that looks amazing.

I can’t say I own any ugly covers though… If there are some manga covers I dislike it’s Dane’s Berserk series, as well as some of the Junji Ito covers which aren’t ugly, just very creepy. 😛

A NATIONAL BOOK/AN INTERNATIONAL BOOK.

HA they’re all pretty international when you think about it! 😛

No I joke. All my manga books are in English! Although once I nearly ordered Elfen Lied on Amazon, only to discover they were all in German. I dodged a very heavy and expensive burden there. 😛

A THIN BOOK/A THICK BOOK.

I don’t really own any thin manga… Some of my thicker books are Wolf Children and Azumanga Daioh.

FICTION BOOK/NON-FICTION BOOK.

They’re all fiction really.

VERY (WAY TOO) ROMANTIC BOOK/ACTION BOOK.

Oh man, the majority of my manga is romance related as that’s just what I’m into. I have read action style manga though before, don’t get me wrong! Those are usually ones that Dane has bought and told me to check out. I do like a bit of action in manga, but I’m a total romance girl. 😛

A BOOK THAT MADE YOU HAPPY/ONE THAT MADE YOU SAD.

There are so many manga series that make me happy! K-ON!, Azumanga Daioh, Nichijou, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and more, but if there is one that really cheers me up to read lately, it’s A Polar Bear In Love.

A Polar Bear In Love is about a polar bear who is in love with a baby seal. The story is about them exploring where they live together and learning more each day about one another, as well as about things around them. I remember reading volume 1 and wondering what the hell was happening, but it’s such a cute story and the artwork is also adorable. Give it a read if you love cute and yet weird manga. 😛

I feel like I’ve spoken about it so much on this post, but both Nana and A Silent Voice broke my heart. Nana is for many reasons, with the biggest of course being the story but also because it isn’t finished! The writer/artist of Nana has health issues and due to that she had to hiatus Nana. I need to know what happens and how it finishes for all the characters. 😦

A Silent Voice is just depressing for many different reasons and what makes it even more depressing? It’s so realistic that I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of stuff that happens in the manga, doesn’t happen on a daily basis to both children and teenagers. It’s about a deaf girl who is bullied by her classmate. She leaves due to the bullying, which results in the classmate being bullied himself for many years after. He learns sign language and goes to meet her to apologise before he attempts suicide… Which doesn’t happen thankfully! That’s all I’m saying! 😛 It has a lovely ending to it however and in itself, that makes me happy.

So those are the answers to the The Opposites Book Tag! I hope my answers aren’t boring due to me changing them to adapt to manga, but as I said before… I don’t read anything else other than manga these days…

Like Eleanor did, anyone who reads this tag post, I CHOOSE YOU TO TAKE PART TOO! 😀

Will you be giving the tag a go? If so let me know in the comments!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re ready for the weekend.

His N Her Manga Collection and Q&A

As regular readers will know, me and Dane are both massive fans of manga and our love of it is only growing more as we start and end another manga series.

I was writing and aiming for this post to be up on my blog around World Book Day but sadly due to life and how busy it can be, I never got around to finishing and publishing it on my blog.

BUT no time like the present and I’ve accumulated more manga since World Book Day which is amazing of course! I of course have included Dane into my manga collection as with both of our books combined we have a great collection so far. I also did some questions for both me and Dane to answer in relation to manga. So it’s kind of like a his and her manga post today! I hope you enjoy it.

Manga We Own

Dane:

Attack on Titan – Vol. 1-20

Attack on Titan: Before the Fall – Vol. 1-5

Attack on Titan: No Regrets – Vol. 1 and 2

Berserk – Vol. 1-6

Death Note – Vol. 1-6

One Punch Man – Vol. 1-10

Natalee:

Azumanga Daioh

Nana – Vol. 1-21

Nichijou – Vol. 1 and 2

Paradise Kiss – Vol. 1-3

A Silent Voice – Vol. 1-7

Sword Art Online: Progressive – Vol. 1-4

Wolf Children

Your Lie in April – Vol. 1-11

Manga We Want:

Attack on Titan: Before the Fall – Vol. 6

Attack on Titan: Lost Girls – Vol. 1 and 2

Berserk – Vol. 7-38

Masamune-kun’s Revenge – Vol. 1-3

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid – Vol. 1 and 2

Nichijou – Vol. 3-6

One Punch Man – Vol. 11

Sherlock: A Study in Pink

Sword Art Online: Progressive – Vol. 5

Dane Questions & Answers:

• What was the first manga you read?

Admittedly I have gotten into manga much later than I could or should have. My first manga was (is) actually Attack on Titan. After watching countless anime I watched the first season of Attack on Titan and couldn’t wait for the next season so I began reading the manga.

• What is your favourite manga to date and why?

Easily Berserk. I have seen and heard about it in the past but always thought it was a manga that was “edgy” for the sake of being edgy. Granted the first arc of the manga does show Guts to be an edgelord (someone, especially posting on the internet who uses shocking annalistic speech and opinions that they themselves may or may not believe to gain attention and come across as a more dangerous and unique person) but he is kept likeable and grows over the course of the manga.

The world of Berserk is a dark one, the manga is very explicit in this and does not shy away from some truly WTF moments. It is not for everyone. It begins with Guts getting freaky with a crazy demon only to kill it mid coitus which is a great way to show what is in store for you. This is one of its greatest assets the fact it is not afraid of going balls to the wall with its story, there are some truly great characters and events that will make you smile and sometimes you will be cutting onions outside in the rain whilst miraculously keeping the book and everywhere but your face dry.

One of the other assets that make this manga worth people’s time is the superior artwork that goes into it. Kentaro Miura is a master when it comes to bringing his panels to life, the character design and the detail (particular the full spreads) are just sublime and you have to see them to believe. Every artist has their moments where some things don’t look quite right but Miura can be excused when he does things like this:

Seriously, anyone should give this article (http://www.exprofundis.com/the-art-of-berserk/) a read because it helps break down the inspiration behind some of the art and showcase some of the best images.

The manga was not my first experience of Berserk. I had tried to watch the anime on a few occasions but never got into it. I have always found it difficult to watch most 90s anime because it doesn’t always gel with me. After giving the 90s season another go I surprised myself when I had a thirst for more, so, like I did with Attack on Titan I began reading the manga. I also heard about the three films which cover the golden age arc, which is the same arc as the 90s series. To me the CGI in those films works really well and I enjoyed those adaptations the most and really makes you wish they carried on making more. The problem is neither really follow the manga chronologically, the 90s anime has a few minutes of the black swordsman arc to go into the golden age arc and obviously the films skip the whole first chapter. So what you are left with is no true adaptation of a brilliant manga.

This then leads me on to why you should stick with the manga for the time being: The 2016 Berserk anime series. Since the first season has finished airing it has been greenlit for a second season. It was amazing to hear that we would finally get to see the full story of Guts in animated form. Only to be disappointed with a horribly directed and crudely animated shit show. The story was mostly there, even some moments which fans expected to be censored or cut (If you dare Google rape horse). I won’t go into too much of a critique but it had some good moments but was overshadowed by some really bad moments. It showed promise and I hope that the studio receive more time and money to give Berserk what it deserves.

• Any online websites or phone apps you suggest for reading manga on?

If you really can’t get the physical books to read I would recommend the manga rock app. It’s free, has decent scans and is what I used to read Berserk and some works by Junji Ito.

• What is a manga you regret reading and why?

I don’t really regret reading any not in that regards. I have looked at some and thought “nah I can’t be arsed with that” but never have I spent the time to read one and thought why did I bother.

To answer the question in a different manner I would say I regret reading some of the short stories Junji Ito has created. They leave you with a sense of uneasiness I haven’t felt from a book before. He is the master of the full spread shock and horror. The stories are some of the most unique I have experienced too, the creativity astounds me and leave you eerily excited to know the outcome but you are always left with a gaping hole because horror stories hardly ever end well.

• What is a manga you can read over and over again and why?

All the manga I am currently or have read is still in production so the stories are incomplete. I have Death Note but that is on my to-do list. So the only manga I can legitimately say is Berserk as I am currently on my second run after finally purchasing the physical copies.

• What is a manga you would suggest people read when first getting into it?

Attack on Titan was a very easy manga for me to get into, it has a decent story and is mature enough to keep me entertained. It is also one that lacks the typical tropes I have found with Japanese media; the fan service, unnecessary cute characters, sweat drop and so on. I don’t mind those things generally but sometimes I feel they remove you from the immersion in a story and western viewers may not appreciate too much of it.

• Is there a manga you think is overrated?

I cannot allow myself to say a manga is overrated because I have not experienced enough to judge. Although I will bash something in my own time I would feel unfair to claim something I have little exposure to. Especially as I can understand liking something that the general public would see as weird or too nerdy just because it’s different.

• Is there a manga you think is underrated?

Anyone who has read Berserk I hope will understand why people like it, even if they don’t themselves. I don’t think there are any that I have seen which don’t have a cult following or a new anime adaptation due out.

• Would you read any of the manga Natalee owns? If so which one(s)?

I would definitely give Your Lie in April and Nichijou a read as I have already taken a quick look and they have peaked my interest. Nana and Paradise Kiss aren’t really my thing, both are most likely brilliant in their own right (the anime for Paradise Kiss kept me interested enough) but it’s just not my thing.

• What’s a manga you love but hate the anime of?

Berserk, as mentioned above. Hate is a strong word for it though.

• What is the next manga you wish to buy and read?

I am currently purchasing as many Berserk manga as possible but it doesn’t really count as one I am due to read as I already have caught up to the latest chapter.

I haven’t really thought that far ahead to be honest so I genuinely don’t know.

Natalee Questions & Answers:

• What was the first manga you read?

The first manga I read was Elfen Lied. I had wanted to read manga for years but I never knew which one TO read. After watching the anime over a handful of times I knew it was time to find the manga to read. Physical copies are hard to come by in Japanese and I don’t think they’re available in English so I resorted to reading it online.

• What is your favourite manga to date and why?

This is a hard one because I love all the manga I have completely finished so far. I honestly can’t answer this question with one manga to be honest. I would like to say A Silent Voice as the story is so realistic and one that has really pulled on my heartstrings. It left me thinking too which I loved. This being said I also loved Elfen Lied and Nana, although Nana isn’t officially finished yet.

• Any online websites or phone apps you suggest for reading manga on?

I have used a phone app in the past but I can’t remember what it was called. I hated it. It wasn’t the app itself but just the way I felt about it. I can’t remember the website I used when I read Elfen Lied. I just Google’d it to be honest when I wanted to read it.

• What is a manga you regret reading and why?

I don’t think there’s a manga I regret reading to be honest with you. I usually check out the anime before reading the manga so I’ll always know if I’ll like the storyline or not. I don’t regret reading it because I haven’t bought it, but I do want to get Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid but the artwork doesn’t look as nice as the anime does… I could see myself regretting buying that one for example.

• What is a manga you can read over and over again and why?

Definitely Elfen Lied as I love the story. I especially love how different it was to the anime.

• What is a manga you would suggest people read when first getting into it?

Something light and quirky is always a good choice. Azumanga Daioh is one of the first I read and it’s an easy one to read and very funny! I suppose any anime you have watched and fallen in love with you should read the manga because the chances are you’ll love that more!

• Is there a manga you think is overrated?

From what I’ve seen it’s definitely got to be One Piece. I haven’t read it and I don’t even know what it’s about but fuck it takes up most of the manga books in shops such as Nostalgia Comics in Birmingham and Forbidden Planet’s all over the country. I’m sure it’s amazing and all but there’s just so many volumes! Same goes to Naruto as well.

• Is there a manga you think is underrated?

I want to say anything by Ai Yazawa but this being said I don’t think she’s underrated. Paradise Kiss is a classic alongside Nana, which isn’t even finished yet and very much sought after these days by Ai Yazawa fans alike. I’m saying it’s underrated because of how long the hiatus of Nana has been now. People have probably given up now on ever knowing what happens in the end. I however have a little bit of faith left in me. I hope we find out sooner rather than later what happens.

• Would you read any of the manga Dane owns? If so which one(s)?

I don’t know to be honest… I’d love to read Attack on Titan and One Punch Man but I would worry they’d involve too much action for my liking. Surprisingly I love this in Sword Art Online: Progressive but I don’t think I would like it in Attack on Titan and One Punch Man. This being said I love the anime of both of these, especially the action behind them!

• What’s a manga you love but hate the anime of?

I recently started watching the anime of Paradise Kiss to coincide with me reading the manga and so far I’m preferring the manga a hell of a lot more! I just find that there are huge chunks missing from the anime which sucks! The same can definitely be said for Elfen Lied too, which leaves the ending in the anime in a really poor manner. There is so much more to the story than the anime lets on which is extremely frustrating. I definitely recommend reading the manga if you love the show. It’s shit loads better!

• What is the next manga you wish to buy and read?

I don’t want to buy it because I wouldn’t be able to read it BUT I really want to print off all the Elfen Lied manga and pop them into a folder so I can physically read them. I would want to do the same for other manga that isn’t available in English.

Besides that I want to try and have a look at Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid before reading to see if I’ll like it and Masamune-kun’s Revenge as I recently started watching the anime which I’m really enjoying. I can see the manga being just as good to be honest.

So that is our lonnnng manga post! Do you like reading manga, or have you just started reading manga? Make sure to let us know which series you’re reading or have read! We’d love to hear from you all.

Until next time take care all and I hope you had a lovely weekend.

Currently #9

I know it hasn’t been that long since my last currently list but I thought it would be nice to write another considering how much stuff I have been currently doing! I’m pretty damn excited to write about a lot of them… I would have waited for my day off tomorrow to write this but the ideas and thoughts of it just came to me, so I have to get it typed and published tonight! I’m sure it’ll make some good bedtime reading for some, as well as some equally as good morning reading for others. 😛

Watching – Lately me and Dane have been watching a lot of anime if not just anime. Why? Well because we can and we want to! Before Christmas Dane bought a membership to Funimation which enables anime lovers to watch loads of anime with English dub instead of English sub. We don’t mind either way how we watch anime but sometimes if we’re multi-tasking we much prefer dubbed. We also have a membership to Crunchyroll which we use to watch subbed anime. ANYWAY! So lately we’ve been watching Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and Masamune-Kun’s Revenge on Funimation and Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid has fast become one of my favourite anime shows! I want to read the manga for it next, the same goes with Masamune-Kun’s Revenge too. They’re both completely different to one another which is what I like. Dane got me into both of them which is really cool.

Masamune-Kun’s Revenge is a slice of life style anime where you get to see Masamune try to get a girl to fall in love with him only to break her heart. Why does he want to do this? To gain revenge for years of being bullied by her! It’s very funny and one you should check out if you like comedy romance style anime.

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid is completely different and not slice of life or realistic at all and I think you can gather that from the title alone! As it states Kobayashi has a dragon maid. She befriends Tohru after a drunken night out and tells her she can come and stay with her and become her maid. From there we see them live their lives together with Tohru mostly in her human form and occasionally in her dragon form. We also see Tohru’s dragon friends becoming human too and joining her and Kobayashi’s friends. My favourite dragon so far is Kanna, the youngest of the dragons and therefore the cutest! 😀

Reading – I have been reading so much manga lately that I feel like I can’t keep on top of the addiction it has fast become! Since the start of the year I have either finished or started four series of different manga. WOW! I’ve not read this much since 2009 when I discovered the Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella. I remember binge reading them late into the night. I have read and finished both Your Lie in April and Paradise Kiss, which I loved and will hopefully be reviewing in the future! Your Lie in April was an amazing manga to read and everyday during my break at work I found myself getting through a book a day and soon enough the series had finished and I had no more to read. It ended sadly but not as sad as I imagined to be honest, but I put this down to already knowing what was going to happen. Paradise Kiss was bought for me by Dane for my birthday this year and I bought the third and final volume myself. This is a manga by the same person as Nana and I didn’t know what to expect when reading it. I loved it and it was realistic and romantic at the same time but without too much romance. I did really love reading it and it was different to what I normally read. I especially love how Ai Yazawa breaks the fourth wall with her manga, it’s not something I’ve seen anyone else do… Yet. I started reading Nichijou, which I love but I’m in no hurry to continue with just yet.

Image take from weheartit.com

I’m currently reading A Silent Voice which alongside Elfen Lied, Nana and Your Lie in April has fast become one of my favourites… If not my number one favourite right now. The story is so realistic and amazing. It talks about bullying and how it can affect everyone so well and is definitely the sort of thing I love to write myself. It has inspired me even more to create my own manga series in the future. Me and Dane went to watch the anime movie of A Silent Voice yesterday and it was amazing. I’ll be reviewing it VERY soon.

Listening – In February me and Dane booked for us to go and see cKy in May! AHHH I’M SO EXCITED! I’ve been a fan of the band since I was fifteen and have always wanted to see them live, but just never got the chance… Until now! I’ve been listening to most of their albums since then as I just forgot how much I love listening to their stuff. My favourite album of theirs definitely has to be Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild. I don’t know why, just all of the tracks make me so happy and I can sing them loudly, one after the other. I love all of their other albums of course, but this one just stands out the most. My favourite song from it is Plastic Plan, which I’ve put the music video for above. Let me warn you, it’s really fucking old. 😛

Image taken from weheartit.com

Eating – There’s not really much I’ve been eating lately that’s any different to lately. If anything me and Dane haven’t been following out diet like we were at the start of the year. We have cut out a lot of junk mind and still have, but at the same time we’ve been binging on things. We recently discovered that at one of our local Asian supermarkets you can buy birthday cake Oreo’s, as well as matcha flavoured Oreo’s and they weren’t as expensive as you’d think either. Just over £1 a packet! I wish we had bought more but meh got to be good. 😛

Wearing – To be honest I haven’t really been wearing anything too special lately… If anything I’ve worn a dress I bought in the Christmas sales in 2016 for a day out with Dane and an evening out with my dad and brother. I also recently bought a dress for a family wedding I’m attending this weekend. That will be exciting to go to! I would show pictures but I’m not too keen on showing them on my blog. Not because they’re horrible or anything, but they’re just not the sort of pictures I feel will work on a post. I’m waffling. 😛

Wanting – I really want a holiday to be honest. Even if it isn’t abroad, just for me and Dane to get away for a week max and have a relaxing time would be lovely. We did look to go to a spa weekend for his birthday in April but sadly due to everywhere being pretty much booked for Easter we aren’t really able to do that. We’re going to try and see if we can do something in June instead for our anniversary, but we shall see!

So that was my currently list number nine! Wow before we know it it’ll be my tenth one which is kind of weird to be honest. They’ve all flown by so quickly. To be honest this whole year is already flying by quickly. 😛

What’s on your currently lists right now? Make sure to let me know in the comments!

Until next time take care all and I hope you had a lovely weekend.

A-Z: Get To Know Me!

I recently found a post of the same title by Be over at Love From Be (link) and I just loved the post so much. It was just a nice and different way of getting to know the blogger you enjoy reading, or have just discovered. So I thought I would give it a go myself! Make sure to go and check out Be’s blog, as she’s so lovely and down to Earth.

Anime – I love anime so much, it’s something I have enjoyed watching from a young age, and the older I’ve got the more anime shows I have found myself watching. Some of my favourites are Elfen Lied, Nana, Azumanga Daioh, Himouto! Umaru-Chan, Sword Art Online, and Fullmetal Alchemist.

Blogging – I didn’t want to have to use this as the letter B, but I really couldn’t think of anything else! I love my blog. It’s my number one hobby, and something I would love to turn into my job in the future. I’ve been running my blog for four years now, and I continue to carry on with it for as long as possible.

Coffee – Well, the title of my blog does have the word coffee in it! I do really like coffee, so much so I worked in Costa Coffee for nearly three years. That is probably the first time I’ve admitted to working in Costa on my blog. 😛 My favourite coffee is vanilla flat white. I love my coffee strong! 😛

Dirty Sanchez – One of my favourite shows has to be this. I love not only that the guys are from the UK, but I also love how they do some worse off stuff than what Jackass have ever done. I’m sad that they aren’t still around, but I’ll always think of Dirty Sanchez as one of the shows I grew up watching and loving.

Evanescence – My favourite band for over ten years now. I fell in love with them when I first heard “Bring Me To Life” on KERRANG! Radio. I ended up buying their first album Fallen and listening to it none stop. I still have that album to this day! I have seen them live twice, and hope to go again in the future. I’ve also met all the band mates (apart from Amy!) from the Evanescence album days. My favourite song is “Imaginary”.

Fuerteventura – This place is legit my second home. I’ve been going there since the age of 5 and I love it. I didn’t go for 10 years and it broke my heart, I forgot how much I loved it and how amazing it was there. I really want to live there one day… But we shall see. I would want to work in a cocktail bar, or hell even run my own on the beach! 😛

Gaming – I’m a gamer. Not a hardcore one, but I still love to play my games! I’m also a console collector too, and I currently own 7 consoles (Nintendo SNES and GameCube, Playstation, PS2, PS3, and PS4, and an Xbox 360), as well as my handheld collection of the original Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS Lite, and my Nintendo 2DS. Go me! But I love playing games. Currently obsessed with the LEGO games. I can’t wait for the Star Wars one to come out.

Hyper Japan – I went to my first Hyper Japan convention last summer in London and I loved it so damn much! It wasn’t as good as I was hoping it was going to be, but I still enjoyed myself. I really hope that me and Dane can attend the winter one this year, seeing as we went to the summer one last year.

iPhone – I own an iPhone 6 and I love it to bits! It’s by far the best phone I have owned to date, and I just love it. It feels nice to hold, is great to look at, and to be honest my new phone case just makes me happy. I only got it in the post yesterday when I got home from work and it’s just so adorable. Who can say no to a sleeping Mew, huh?

Jackass – Another one of my favourite shows. I grew up watching this too funnily enough! I would skip school to stay at home eating toast and watching TV shows on MTV. Or I would stay awake all night watching them on Viva. God those were the days! I was gutted when Ryan Dunn died too by the way. It really hit home as he was my favourite one on the show. I’m sad that this has also come to an end, but I love Bad Grandpa, it’s amazing!

Kawaii – A Japanese word for cute. I love cute things and often say kawaii about them to try and be cute myself. It rarely works and I end up looking like a complete loser. 😛

Lipstick – This is really the only makeup I wear, and I’m pretty damn proud of that! I love lipstick, and I’ve recently started to get braver in wearing darker lip shades than I already wear. I love liquid lipsticks the most right now. My favourite brand being Jeffree Star Cosmetics. I also love my MAC lipsticks too, my favourite shade will always be Rebel. I love wearing reds, dark pinks, and purples. Can never get enough of them!

Manga – I love reading manga. I started to read it back in 2011 when I finish university and had time on my hands. I started with Elfen Lied, then moved onto Azumanga Daioh, and Nana. I currently have some Nana to finish reading and then I’ll be moving onto the Sword Art Online series. I need to read the Attack On Titan manga too… But I only have enough time on my hands for one thing at a time.

Nendoroid – These are the awesome figures that me and Dane collect, and we really do love them! We have a nice little collection going at the mostly, which are mostly Dane’s. I only have 3 at the moment whilst he has (from memory) 10 figures… My collection is really lame in comparison! Good Smile recently announced they were creating a Deadpool Nendoroid, so me and Dane are really excited for him!

Ocean – I love the ocean. I love how beautiful it looks and sounds with the colours, and the crashing and gentle swishing noises. I finally got to swim in the sea/ocean on my holiday last January with Dane and I loved it so damn much! I can’t wait to do that again someday.

Image taken from We Heart It

Pokemon – Since the age of 6 I have loved Pokemon, and that love is still just as strong now 10 years later. I still play the games, lust after the cute plushies (as you’ll have seen from my recent wish list post here), and get excited when any new news comes out to do with the franchise. I don’t care if I’m a 26-year-old woman, I love Pokemon! 😛

Queens Of The Stone Age – One of my other favourite bands, and one I really want to see soon! I have always ended up not going to see them live due to having no money, no one to go with, or them playing too far away from home. When they tour again however I won’t let the chance slip away!

Red – Not my  favourite colour (that’s purple) but it’s my colour of choice clothing wise! I love the colour red and how bold, and sexy it looks. It also suits me due to my warm yellow skin tone, as well as my brown hair and eyes. I’m after a gorgeous red rain coat at the moment, but alas I haven’t found much.

Studio Ghibli – This is my Disney. You know everyone loves Disney movies? Well I love Studio Ghibli movies. Me and my boyfriend between us have pretty much all of the films on DVD and whenever a new one comes out we try to go and watch it at the cinema. My favourite is Spirited Away, it always has been and I’m pretty sure it always will be. I do rather like Grave of The Fireflies, even though it’s a really sad film.

Teachers – Another TV show I grew up watching! This used to be on Channel 4 back in the day when I was still at school myself! It always made me want to be a teacher deep down due to how much fun all the teachers had both in and outside of school. Alas that hasn’t happened… My favourite season is probably season 2, but I love them all!

Image taken from We Heart It

Umaru – I am legit Umaru… Constantly hermitting away in my room playing games, eating crap, reading manga, and lusting after things I can’t afford to buy. I’m not cute like her though… Just a very sad 16-year-old stuck inside someone 10 years older than herself… Oh dear. 😛

Vitamin D – This is an odd one, but I actually recently found out I have a vitamin D deficiency… Which of course sucks but I’m currently on medication to help it. The little pills I get are tiny blue ones, which remind me of The Matrix. 😛

Writing – I love to write. I do it for my blog, I write books and stories in my spare time, and I even studied critical and creative writing for my masters degree (as well as for my BA too…). So it is safe to say I love writing. 😛 Need I say more than that???

X (I apologise but I couldn’t think of anything with this letter…)

Yankee Candle – I love these candles! They’re my candle of choice whenever I go to buy any new ones, so I’m always burning them at home. I currently have Christmas Eve burning at the moment as I’m trying to use up all my  tea lights and votives. 🙂

Z (I apologise but I couldn’t think of anything with this letter…)

Image taken from We Heart It

So that was my A-Z about me! Thanks again to Be for posting about this, as if she hadn’t I might not have gotten the chance to have a go at it myself. I also apologise if any of my answers were lame… 😛

Will you be having a go at talking about yourself through an A-Z post? Make sure to let me know if you do so I can read yours!

Until next time, take care all and I hope you’re having a great week so far.

Japanese Series: Manga

Welcome to the first post in my Japanese Series!

I decided in January that I would create this series because of how much I love Japan and really want to go. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to learn Japanese, as well as that I read manga daily and I also watch some Canadian YouTuber’s who are living and studying in Japan, whilst documenting all sorts of things to do in Japan if you live there, or are just visiting.

Either way there will be 4 of these posts in this series, one every Wednesday during February and I for one am super excited about this series! I had been thinking about it throughout December, but only decided on getting on with ideas for the series in mid January.

So without further ado, shall I get on with the first post of this series? I think I shall!

As you can see from the above image, I own quite a lot of manga books so far, eight in total, seven from one manga series and one from another.

This huge manga book contains ALL four of the original manga books of the very popular series, Azumanga Daioh. I actually found out about this manga existing through the anime, which I began watching in 2011 whilst I was still at university. I fell in love with it and found myself watching it a lot during my last months of university.

Eventually when I’d watched the anime I was after a manga version to read and I searched everywhere for nearly 2 years for it, eventually finding it on Forbidden Planet to buy! However when I  ordered it, after 2 weeks of waiting they informed me that infact they didn’t have this in stock and that I would receive a full refund. A mixture of annoyed and upset I looked elsewhere and I finally found this on Amazon to purchase. At nearly £14 it wasn’t cheap, but I tell you this is a massive book and if you hit someone over the head with this very hard, you could probably knock them out!

As of yet I haven’t actually finished reading this manga and I have less than half of it left to read. I think after I’ve finished some of my manga at the moment, I’ll finish reading this book.

To let you know the basic plot of Azumanga Daioh it’s about a group of Japanese girls who are in the same class as each other at high-school and you get to see all sorts of things they get to both in and out of school during their three years there.

The manga has some comical and quirky moments in that had me laughing out loud when I used to read this manga last year and due to it I often got some weird looks. Each character in the manga has her own personality and it’s quite comical to see what each character comes out with when it comes to a situation.

The manga itself is like most manga books, in a standard black and white where you read the book from right to left… So backwards! As well as black and white pages, there are some coloured pages inside this copy of Azumanga Daioh which I really like! I haven’t yet got to these pages, reading wise but I thought I would take a picture of them to share with you anyway!

Out of all the characters in Azumanga Daioh, Sakaki is by far my favourite. She’s extremely shy but is loved and admired by most of the girls in the school due to being tall, having long hair and big boobs. She doesn’t really like the attention that these things about her give towards her and she just likes being quiet. She also loves anything cute and longs for her own pet cat. She’s an adorable character and that’s why I love her so much.

Although I do not own any physical copies of Elfen Lied, it is infact the first manga I read, as well as the first one I finished. I fell in love with anime and manga thanks to Elfen Lied and although I can’t show you the manga itself, I will show you images from the internet, as I can’t NOT talk about this manga!

To clear up why I don’t own any physical copies of the manga… They’re very hard to find and the only copies I have ever been able to find on eBay have been Japanese and cost over £10 EACH! They’re not cheap and they’re certainly not easy to find but if and when I visit Japan, I’m going to see if I can find all of the Elfen Lied manga books to bring home with me!

So I was naughty and I read Elfen Lied on a manga reader website, which was very helpful seeing as I couldn’t get my hands on any physical copies.

Like all the manga books I’ve read or that I’m currently reading, I have always found about the manga versions through an anime and likewise, this happened with Elfen Lied. It’s rather odd how I discovered the anime, but that will be spoken of in another post in this series.

I loved the anime so much that when I found out it was based off of a manga and that the manga revealed more about the story than the anime every did, I KNEW I had to read it and whilst I was out of work after university, I spent most of my time reading the manga online.

If you have watched the anime, definitely read the manga as it’s amazing!

Image taken from weheartit.com

With Elfen Lied it is a very gorey manga and anime and not for the faint of heart, but this being said the storyline for this is amazing and as a writer is has inspired me with a lot of my own work, especially the first novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo.

Elfen Lied is about a new race of human, Diclonius. They look like humans and even talk like humans but they’re born with invisible arms called vectors and a pair of short horns sticking out of their heads. In the show all the Diclonius are girls and are all born with pink hair. Lucy is the main character of Elfen Lied and after escaping a prison she was being kept in she forms a childlike personality, Nyu. She is found on a beach by Kohta and Yuka and it’s from that moment that things start to go wrong and you find out more about the Diclonius race, as well as about Lucy’s past.

The manga and the anime are both amazing and if you don’t mind some graphic scenes involving a lot of blood and murder then I recommend you to go and read or watch either of them!

Cool fact about Lucy/Nyu, I dressed up as them both back in Halloween 2010, which was a lot of fun! Everyone at the university night I attended thought I was Lady Gaga, which pissed me off something crazy. I hope to attend a cosplay in the near future as Lucy/Nyu.

Now the final manga I will be talking about is Nana, which is also the manga I am currently reading.

Once again I discovered this manga through the anime, but this being said I heard about them both from Michelle Phan on YouTube when she filmed and posted a make up tutorial video on Nana Osaki. I’m going to link it on here for you to watch, as it’s a pretty awesome tutorial!

I love Nana and although I love Elfen Lied as it was the first manga I got into, read and finished, I’m growing to love Nana that little bit more. Nana is a drama and very much love themed.

The story is about two Nana’s who meet each other on a train to Tokyo. Nana Osaki is a punk rocker, moving to Tokyo to continue to her punk rock music career and Nana Komatsu wears her heart on her sleeve and is moving to Tokyo to be more independent and be closer to her boyfriend and her best friend.

Although the two Nana’s are completely different, they are in ways similar and after losing each other after their train journey, they meet up once more whilst trying to find a flat to move into, which in turn was the same flat.

The manga is 22 volumes long and I’m currently on volume 6. I love the way the cover of each volume for Nana tells a story of the two girls, are you’ll see from the image above. So far from volume 3-7 you can see how both the Nana’s go out of their flat to go to the beach, to a cafe, on a train, and then you can see them using a train guide maybe in a train station. I just like the theme and mini story it tells, as I think it looks really nice.

The artwork for Nana is beautiful and some of the most lovely manga drawings I’ve ever seen, so when it comes to reading Nana, although I know most of what happens due to watching the anime, it’s a joy to see the gorgeous pictures. I wish I could draw like this!

So out of all the manga I’ve read, I’ve only read/currently reading these three manga books/series. I know that isn’t a lot to write home about, but in manga quite  often there will be a lot of volumes to get through and as I’m on a spending ban, I’m being good and only buying 3 Nana books a month to read.

Forbidden Planet have an amazing deal of 3 for 2 on their manga so I always go in there for my Nana books now, so it only costs me £13.98 for 3 volumes! DEAL! I said to myself that whilst I’m on my spending ban, I can’t NOT read Nana, so I ensure to treat myself once a month, which I didn’t do during January, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be buying 3 more volumes during this month.

Do you like manga? If so which series have you read so far or which ones would you like to read or currently reading?

If you aren’t a fan of manga? How come? Hey! You might not have even heard of manga before until this post! Does it interest you at all since reading this?

Please leave any answers to the following questions or if you have any questions of your own, leave them all down in the comments down below!

I hope you enjoy this series! Next week I’ll be talking about anime!

In true Japanese style…

Jikai made, subete no sewa o suru! >>> Until next time, take care all!