the last nite

now it has come to this kind of time. finally, the awaited day is only a few hours away. in less than 24 hours, i'll be off the land.

so, how actually did i spend my last few days before flying off? going out at most days!

well, i read books. manga can still be considered books, right? so i read the whole series of '20th century boys'! actually i reread it, but in hard copy this time. when i read it before, it was all pixel-ed and i had to stare on the screen for so long, of course, it's comprised of 23 volumes after all, topped up with 2 extra volumes which concludes the whole story. it's really interesting!

the nice thing is i find myself reading manga in japanese so naturally now. that makes me so happy. i did set my goal of getting myself able to read manga and watch drama as soon as finishing my JAD program. prior to reading this one, i finished reading pluto too, both from the same mangaka-Naoki Urasawa! his works are simply fabulous and amazing. the story will hook you on and the suspense never fail to keep you jumpy. well, both of this is sorta heavy for some readers. it's a seinen manga after all. all this thanks to JFKL Library, i need not to pay a cent! except the transportation cost.

and more about books, i bought another one today, the temptation is far too high, i just gotta have it in my possession. rather than buying, i was using the voucher i got, all thanks to my bro who made a big purchase the other day which entitled him for a rm50 voucher after spending rm500 in kinokuniya-see how this store could scrap money out of you. this one is called 'You Shall Know Our Velocity' by dave eggers, mostly i was attracted by title, but then when i tried reading it a bit, i find myself hooked already. the one i just bought the other day is still unfinished though, the one i've been coveting for so long-'Stories'all new tales edited by neil gaiman and al sarrantonio. but from my recent tendency of getting immersed in reading while commuting, throughout the 7-hour flight tomorrow i could finish most of them i think.

now let's hope i could finish these two soon coz i'm alredy eyeing on japanese novel next

the last book i just finished was good too, in fact great. now that's another haruki marukami's in my list. but this particular book titled 'Underground' is kind of special because it revolves around a real incident. he probes into the tokyo gas attack that occurred at tokyo subway in 1995 and publishes the interviews he did with some of the people involved in it-the victims and the part of organization that's apparently behind the attack. it gives the view inside the incident firsthand from the people at the scene from their perspectives and the effect long after it, mentally and physically. once something had already sunk in the mountain on the past, one can still be affected by it no matter how much it weighs in the present.

i'm so impatient of getting 'waltz' manga once i reach nihon. i've been refraining myself for more than a year already when i always saw them at the rack in kinokuniya

wow, that's long when talking about books alone!

so, i also watch an anime. it's actually from a year or two before but i hadn't had the chance to watch it. it's 'Eden of the East', partially because the character design is the same like honey and clover, added with a strong story, this makes the anime among the top of my list. i pretty much had babbled abt the same stuff here, so to avoid the post from getting so long-winded, i better end it now.

lastly, a little member of our big family who i can only see again in 2 years time. it's my cousin's newly-born baby deep in sleep after getting so worked up in the night. see you again, zikri!

wishing everyone a safe flight!

another praise

it has been so long since the last time i got hooked to an anime. the last one was code geass R2 -gosh, it's a must-see. then, i thought of following the kuroshitsuji anime, but later i found the manga to be more amusing than its anime version. however, just yesterday, when i originally intended to copy the dorama from my friend's external hard disk, i discovered an anime which somehow attracted me. yeah, i copied that too.

and just now, i finished watching all the 26 episodes. by the way, the title is 'bokura ga ita'.

let me explain that it is purely a high school love story. may i repeat, love story! can't believe till now how i actually got hooked in watching it. it's not like i ever give a damn about this kind of stuff. however, i find the characters of the story to be quite interesting, their characteristic is pretty compelling and were portrayed in a beautiful way. i admit one might see it's plain in a glance, but because it's so plain it just connects with what we encounter in daily life. they just seems so human. it made me realize how we might react when confronting certain circumstances. could we still really grasp on wht we believe?

for the storyline, mostly it runs on the typical 'high school love story'. it's about a girl entering high school, and somehow fall in love with the popular guy who happened to be her classmate she found hateful at first. the girl is a typical plain high school students but a bit babyface-cute. the guy is a happy-go-lucky guy, outstanding anywhere he is, friendly and smart. at the beginning, it may just seem like a story of a couple getting together after the boy confessed during a very romantic time, but it is no happy-ever-after story. the rollercoaster took off the moment they started to be a couple. there were smile and tears, hugs and kisses(a lot of them) and not to forget, the misunderstandings, the breakups, the miscommunications, and all the selfish sides of being in love. somehow, i wonder if the original writer wrote the story based on experience, their story thereafter was so full of up and down (gosh, i'm out of vocab here), so painful just like how the reality is. sometimes i felt the story is of my friend's rather than just a fictitious anime i watch from this monitor. it is so deep.

we humans just can't escape to have the feeling of insecurity. that's why we need support.

So, my favourite parts in 'Bokura ga ita':

• the friendship between Yano (the main male character) and his best friend, Takeuchi
  
• Yano's smile
  
• Yano's various personality
  
• a way to describe happiness : "to have something that makes you warm when it's cold - it can be hot meat bun, or even the person you love"


• when Yano and Nana(the main female character) take purikura 1st time and second time before they have to be apart


• they might be kissing all the time they could but Nana knows the boundary where he didn't allow the boy the pass through (okay, at a point she eventually willingly gave in but for the rest of the time, i really respect that, compared the other story i watch)
  
• and absolutely the songs that are effectively used along the story. as every episode ends, the choice of song just suits the mood, it could made u cry having listened to it while getting immersed in the scene. at sweet scenes, it would be a happy tune while for an unexpected heartbreaking moment, the song too would break you into tears. as it does so, you would just let the the episode went on until the last second just so you could listen to the song till the end(i would usually skip the ending sequence for other anime). so, this isntantly be among my favourites for its song other than 'honey and clover'. a good job they really have done here.

simply, though i never had any experience of this sort before, i'm still greatly touched by the whole story..

here's the sweet couple which in my view really depicts the real couple out there-the stories, the selfishness, the jealousy, the passion are just so real