I had to buy a new external harddrive this week because my old one developed a fault and died. Fortunately, I was able to salvage what I had on it before it crapped out on me altogether, and now I'm using one that's much smaller, cuter and more energy effecient. The new harddrive is a plug-and-play type thing which just slots into a USB port, while the old one needed a power supply to work. Yay.

In other news, this season's anime list doesn't look terribly exciting. I've tried a few new shows but will probably only stick with two, Telepathy Shoujo Ran and Natsume Yuujin-cho. The thing that initially drew me to Telepathy Shoujo Ran was the cast, which features Ueda Kana and Emiri Katou, aka the tsundere queens, but it seems to be a cute enough story so far. What I really like about it is that it's a show that features middle schoolers rather than high school students. In other words, that means around 85% less teenage angst and UST for the viewer to have to sit through. Oh, and Ueda Kana's character is Natsuki from Mai-hime's clone. The series itself? Well, it's about a telepathic girl named Ran. The title kind of gives it away. ^^;;

Natsume Yuujin-cho is pretty much what I expected, and nothing that hasn't already been done before. Similar to Shounen Onmyouji, but not as awesome as Mushishi, it's about a boy who inherits a book from his deceased grandmother. She basically went around binding spirits and making them serve her, so Natsume decides to free the spirits from their contract. The series is pretty to look at, plus it had a very touching first episode. On top of that, I totally didn't recognise Inoue Kazuhiko as Nyanko-sensei, but then it has been a very long time since I last heard him in anything. Kamiya Hiroshi plays Natsume, and I'm personally not a huge fan of his voice, but hey. ::ducks rotten vegetables being thrown by the rabid Tieria fans::

Aside from checking out new anime, I've also been doing a good clean up of the house. I even managed to dig out my old Lord of the Rings DVDs that I thought I'd lost long ago, and have spent most of the weekend watching them rather than doing something constructive with my time. Okay, so ogling hot men and cooing over cute boys is sort of constructive, but it won't help much when you're trying to finish chores. Return of the King extended edition is like, four hours long or something. I'm still only halfway through it. I'll watch the rest today after I've cooked a big Sunday lunch.

It's very rare for me to go back to old fandoms, but I just couldn't help searching out the old LotR archives I used to frequent back in 2001/2002 before I dropped live action stuff and turned to anime fandoms full time. Then I remembered why I stopped reading LotR fics in the first place (too much mpreg and abuse of old English) and switched to RPS instead. The only FPS fic I did continue reading, and remains one of my favourite fics EVAH to this day, is Bagenders. ♥

I usually hate these kind of memes, but I had to do it because, well, it's Pokemon. ♥

THE POKEMON MEME!

( Brief ramblings on DP 84-85 )

Here's the latest trailer for movie 11. I still can't believe it's going to be out in cinemas in just over a week or so. To be honest, I'm not even that bothered about seeing it anymore. Too much Hikari and Pochama whoring can do that to a person.

Anyway, here's a link to the PV for the movie's ending theme by Crystal Kay. I also ripped an MP3 version of it for anyone who's interested:

♥ Crystal Kay - ONE ♥

It's... fine, I guess. Better than the last movie's theme, for sure, but not nearly as good as previous ones.

Have some of the calendar movie wallpapers while I'm at it. They're pretty. ♥

January // February // March // April // May // June // July

Well, everyone else was doing it. ♥

( The Hikago meme )

First, thank you so much to all the people who got in touch after my emo entry of doom. Your kind words were very much appreciated. ♥



What is this? An actual layout at hikaru.nu along with something resembling content? Okay, so it's far from finished, but at least I have pretty pictures up there at last. Now to get moving on the six million other projects I'm currently working on...

I was pretty excited yesterday when I checked Tokyo Toshokan to find that the second Pokemon movie had been subbed, but my excitement quickly died with I finished downloading the file and opened it up in Zoom Player. The translation is... not fantastic, so I won't be ditching my copy of the raw for a while yet. I only got through half the movie, but that was because I found myself having flashbacks of AnimeJunkies and mass naked child events.

Also, myanimelist.net is too addictive. I must have killed a good two and a half hours messing about with it over the weekend. I surprised myself when I saw how much anime I've watched over the years, but although my list is relatively small compared to other peoples, I won't watch anime just for the sake of watching it. I have to, y'know, *like* a series and its characters. I recently watched the first episodes of Itazura no Kiss and Saikano and found myself wondering why most het romance shows have the girl as really small and cute while the guy looks ugly and about 30 when they're both supposed to be the same age and in the same school year. Mystery...

Heat waves suck. Boo.

Because I don't read nearly as much as I should do, here's a couple of book reviews. ♥

( Out by Natsuo Kirino and The Gift by Alison Croggon )



In other news, I finished the Haruka shrine at last! Well, kind of. There's still a ton of stuff that needs to be done, but at least I have something up. ♥

Because I'm a sheep and because I had a couple of hours to kill, here's a meme. ♥

( Anime, anime, anime )

Whoa, that took a while to fill out. Anyway, I was cleaning up my computer earlier and deleting all the crap I seem to have accumulated over the months when I found some old fanart given to me by ledgem back in 2005 that made me smile.

( Agi luvs Thoma )

Fangirl Wanda ♥ Agi/Thoma as much as we do, ahaha. I need to rewatch Fantastic Children and remind myself of how absolutely AWESOME it is. And maybe pimp it out again. It was so tragically ignored when the fansubs first came out and it's still ignored now that it's been licensed and all the DVDs are out. Woe. ;__;

Ugh, I've been so busy lately, but at least I'm almost done with the spring cleaning. The house is looking a lot emptier now that most of the junk has been cleared out, plus it's also looking a bit cleaner now that most of the walls have had a fresh coat of paint. I hate hoarders, especially when the junk they've been collecting dates back to the late 60's/early 70's, but then hoarders probably hate me, the kind of person who throws or gives away even useful stuff. I have very few possessions of my own, but then that makes moving house so much easier.

In other news, I have a shiny new laptop! AOL have recently begun an attempt to snare new customers by offering them a free laptop when they take out a contract for broadband. I thought it was a bit unfair for them to neglect current customers in favour of tempting new ones, so I called the support line and the conversation went something like this:

Me: "Can I have a laptop?"
Representative: "No. They're for new customers only."
Me: "But I've been with you for nearly a decade. You must have taken thousands of pounds from me over the years. Don't I deserve something nice in return for such loyal service?"
Representative: "No. New customers only."

So I cancelled my account, opened up a new one and now I have a brand new laptop. Yay. ♥

Also, the Pokemon Platinum website is now up, although there's nothing much there at the moment. The sad thing is, I know I'll probably end up buying this game when it's released in September even though I've already played both Diamond and Pearl to death already. Why couldn't they have given us what we've all been clamouring for and do a Gold/Silver remake instead of a Diamond/Pearl one? Boo.

( Cut for brief bitching about DP 79 and the series in general )

To summarise Soul Eater? Well, if Tim Burton ever made an anime, it would look a lot like this. It actually felt like I was watching a Gorillaz video or something when I first saw the opening theme; it's very cool and stylish.

All that aside, the story basically revolves around a shinigami school, its three main characters and their human weapons who have to collect and eat souls (hence the title) in order to become a Death Scythe.

( Cut for dorkery and screencaps )

So I was shopping in Marks and Spencer this morning and sort of half listening in on a conversation between two old women in front of me while I was waiting to be served by the cashier. One of them was talking about what I thought was something about sexy vegetables, which led to me blurting out without thinking, "Eh? Erotic cabbage?" and she was all, "No, I said *grotty* cabbage," and everyone in the queue started laughing. My eyesight is bad enough that I can walk past a poster in a shop front and read what should be 'FREE PROMO' as 'FREE PORN', so I suppose that means my hearing is starting to go the same way. x__x

But anyway, now for a review for an anime series that's all about perverts. ♥

( Monochrome Factor screencaps and rambling under the cut )

Isn't it annoying when people state the obvious? I've lost count of how many times I've been told, "By the way, do you know you have a cold sore?" over the past three days. No, of course I don't. The side of my mouth swelling to three times its usual size, burning and itchy blisters and leaking pus and blood never once gave it away. [/sarcasm]

Still, it's been nearly 20 years since I last had one of these horrible things on my mouth. Back then, I was too young to care about how I looked. Then again, I don't really care about how I look now, so I guess it's not too much of a loss. I'm also just getting over the flu. Nice to know that this is what spring and warmer weather brings to me.

Anyway. Let's talk anime, shall we? ♥

If last season had nothing much to offer, this one more than makes up for it. There are so many shows I want to try out, but as I feared, Code Geass is hogging all the fansubbers (seriously, there are like four or five groups working on it). Even season two of xxxHolic has been pretty much ignored, although Shinsen have finally released a subbed version of the first episode. Alice in Wonderland!Watanuki made the wait for a new season more than worthwhile. Moar crossdressing Watanuki plz next time in a Card Captor Sakura outfit.

Two shows I won't be checking out are To LOVE-Ru and Kanokon, but then I've never been a huge fan of anything that consists solely of bouncing breasts and pantie shots. Oh Xebec, how you have fallen. You used to produce *good* shows (gay shows!), but apparently not anymore.

There's a bunch of other stuff I'd love to get round to watching, but rather than getting the raws via YouTube or Veoh, I think I'll be patient and see if they actually get subbed. Soul Eater, Monochrome Factor, Himitsu The Revelation and Kyouran Kazoku Nikki all look promising. I might even watch Junjou Romantica, but then it has been a very long time since I lasted watched anything gay. There's so much shoujo around this season. We need more MANLY FRIENDSHIP and MANLY ROMANCE.

( Cut for blah about Vampire Knight, Amatsuki and Allison & Lillia )

[EDIT] Just heard from wowowparadise that there's a new Beyblade series this August? I'll believe it when I see it. XD

Earthquake hits Britain! It was all over the news this morning and it really *was* news to me, because I felt the earthquake myself last night and thought it was just the wind or something when the whole house shook, ahaha. Everyone was talking about it at the hospital, and nobody seemed terribly impressed when I called them all a bunch of pansies. Try living in a country where they have proper earthquakes. Then you can talk about how scary they are.

Anyway, tagged by wowowparadise. ♥

Rules: The rules are easy, just post 10 things that recently made you happy! Then tag 10 people and force them to post this meme on their LJs. Because it is good. Everyone needs a little happiness once in awhile.

( Cut for length )

Anyone who wants to do this meme feel free. XD

Thank you very much to all the people who wished me a happy birthday yesterday~! It actually wasn't very happy at all because I was sick, but I also got money from family members, so that makes everything better. Thank you especially to elyndys and xdeadpan, who gave me virtual gifts! They're sitting pretty in my profile. ♥

Well, since my birthday has just been and gone and all, I figured I'd treat myself by buying a Megaupload premium account. There's a bunch of stuff I'd been meaning to download for a while now, so I thought, hey, I'll give these guys some cash and get rid of all the ads and that waiting between downloads business. AHAHAHAHAHAHA. HA. Even though I now have two months of unlimited access, I can't actually download anything. If I don't get a 'this file is currently unavailable' message, I get the download speed of a dial-up connection when I finally *do* manage to open up the page. Megaupload = EPIC FAIL.

::floats off to eat some chocolate cake::

( Maid moe FTW )



BOTH THE SATOSHI AND THE HIKARI SHRINES HAVE BEEN UPDATED! ::keels over:: They have new layouts, new content, new EVERYTHING, so go check them out. ♥

I didn't get anything at all for Christmas this year. ::sad face:: I was going to make up for it by treating myself to something nice today, but the nurse sent me straight home in a taxi. I had an appointment earlier this morning at the hospital, and you're not allowed to go home alone if you have sedation. I usually make my excuses and sneak off anyway (because I don't have anyone to pick me up in the first place), but I got caught this time. Boo.

But anyway, a fic meme~!

( Fic 2007 )

And because I felt like spazzing over my newest OTP a little. ♥

( Cut for screencaps and download links )

Just for my own reference (and because I'm much too cold and lazy to do anything resembling actual work), here's a list of all the Hikago doujinshi I own, organised by circle. All Akira/Hikaru, some zip files provided for raws/scanlations.

( 100 Mankai )

( Nijuuboshi )

( Rin-Low )

::goes back to bed with a hot water bottle and her DS::

I got your card this morning, karorumetallium! It's so cuuuute. Thank you very much! Now I need to send you that GBA in the post and hope that it'll reach you before Christmas. ♥

In other news, I've been busy making a start on redecorating my bedroom. I put the blind I'd bought a couple of weeks ago up, which I'm very proud of, but it's back to front, sooo. Oh well. At least it looks all right. I ended up with a lot of leftover parts as well, but that's probably okay. The blind hasn't fallen down yet, anyway. I also decided on what colour to paint the walls at last (it's a nice warm peachy/orangey colour). My next big challenge is to assemble the new bed I bought when it arrives, so we'll see how that goes.

Even better, I *finally* managed to get my Nintendo WiFi connection working. It only took me a year, but hey. Better late than never. I tried installing the USB device you sent me ledgem, but then I kind of realised it would only work on Windows XP and I've updated to Windows Vista. So, I browsed about on the Nintendo website a bit, and I found a way to connect with a wireless router. Astonishingly enough, it worked, and now I have a friend code! It's 3952-5511-0804 if you want it, now let us geek together. Oh, and it's only eleven more days until the Darkrai lovefest. ♥

I'm working on the fic I promised you, corbeaun, slowly but surely. I think I ran out of funny with the last one. I just can't seem to dredge up anymore humour. I'll try and make it worthy of that awesome piece of art you drew me. ::crosses fingers:: Speaking of fics, I had a really interesting dream this morning that could work into a Hikago/xxxHolic crossover, but it's been so long since I last read Holic that I don't even know what's going on with it anymore. ^^;;

And lastly, I poked at the D.Gray-man anime for the first time in months. I was about to write it off as the worst anime adaptation of a shounen manga series ever after all that filler, but then I saw this little omake:

( Kanda wants beansprout )

Today has been a very good day that has totally made up for the crappy weekend I just had. I finished the Yongha/Hikaru fic I'd promised issen4 and was actually quite happy with the end result, and then corbeaun went and drew me the most amazing piece of fanart. Oh, and melithiel scanslated the Akira/Hikaru doujinshi I posted over at hikago_djs. Life is good. ♥

Um, yeah. There is no real point to this post other than to say how full of love I feel right now. ::floats away on a happy cloud and scatters sparkles over everyone::