Just a little something...

Harry Potter Anime

I saw this picture online:

see more Lol Celebs

Now I want this anime … the character design looks great!

Thief 1412

The mysterious thief 1412, also known as Kaito Kid, is another character of mangaka (manga-artist) Gosho Aoyama. And finally another volume of his stories has been published in Germany.

Gosho Aoyama is better known for his other, long-running series: “Detective Conan” (the animated series is known in the US as “Case Closed”). Before Shinichi Kudo stepped on the scene, though, the author wrote and drew three volumes filled with the adventures of Kaito Koruba. (Yes, the name is a trifle obviously, but we’re talking about a Japanese comic here, not about a crime novel for adults - besides, the reader practically knows from page one who the mysterious Kaito Kid really is.)

In one of the stories of volume four (“Black Star”) Kaito and Shinichi even meet. (As they do during “Detective Conan” during various occasions, Kaito even turns up in one of the OVAs, “The wizard of the last century”.) But while Conan’s world is completely rational, Kaito’s world allows for a little bit of magic, usually through his classmate (and part-time mistress of the dark arts) Akako. Still, Kaito does not rely on magic of the “Abracadabra”-kind. He’s the son of a renown illusionist (who was Kaito Kid until he was killed eight years before the start of the story) and uses all the skills he has developed through the years to steal various rare jewels.

But, as he’s the hero after all, he doesn’t steal those jewels just for their value or to fence them. He’s after an organisation looking for special, rare jewels, one of which will grant the owner eternal life. They killed his father and now he’s after revenge.

As he’s a thief, there is, of course, a police inspector after him - who happens to be the father of his classmate (and secret love) Aoko. And there’s a young detective (not too unlike Conan - or rather Shinichi, as he’s 16, not 6) after him, too, who suspects his true identity.

What I like about those stories is their fast pace - and the missing need to solve the crime (which I always feel with “Detective Conan”). They’re a bit funny, a bit touching, adventurous and full of action.

And this Saturday, I had the fun of watching the seventh OVA of “Detective Conan” and reading volume 4 of “Kaito Kid” at the same time.

Ludwit the Third

... volume of the manga, at least. But first a few basics. I’ve already written about “Ludwig Revolution”, a manga (read: Japanese comic) by one of my favourite artists, Kaori Yuki. (As her other series, the last being the three-parter “Fairy Cube”, are all finished, I hope for a few more volumes about Prince Ludwig [or Lui].)

Here’s the short description: Ludwig was sent on a trip by his father (with whom he doesn’t get along well) to find a suitable bride, preferably the princess of another kingdom. While the prince is quite attractive, his character isn’t as perfect as his looks. He has quite a sadistic streak and also a slight fixation on big-breasted women. Travelling with Ludwig are his servant Wilhelm and - starting with volume 2 - also the quite attractive (and rather big-breasted) witch Dorothea (who has quite a masochistic streak, so she would actually be a perfect match for the prince, including the magical knowledge and prowess in poisons she has).

With the second volume (published quite a while after the first, but then, there was a long break in her series “God Child” as well - and it didn’t hurt that series), the story takes another turn, as two more characters (the new wife [and former lover] of Ludwig’s father and her son [who’s also the king’s illegitimate son]) enter the stage and a plot to overthrow and disinherit the prince is put in motion. Assassins (first Wilhelm’s childhood sweetheart Lisseth [known as “Red Riding Hood”], then two former acquaintances of the prince, Hansel and Gretel) enter the story, but none of them can kill the prince, Lisseth even accepts his job offer. As the names - or titles - of the assassins suggest, the base for all stories of the manga are the Grimm fairytales. Starting off with Snow White (Blanche [Neige] who turns out to be a scheming, little bitch far from being innocent), the artist works her way through most known stories (Cinderella filling 90 percent of the third volume) and twists them in a way that makes them less suitable for children, but more interesting for older teens or adults. Ludwig stumbles into most stories by pure accident (mostly because the female lead is supposed to be very beautiful and, yes, big-breasted) and does his best to get out of them again - not above helping others, but not really looking for chances to be that white knight, either.

Volume 3 deals mostly with the story of Cinderella (who, in this version, rather enjoys being treated badly by her step-sisters ... thinking it better than to be completely ignored), but it starts off with the sombre story of Hansel and Gretel, being sent into the forest by their parents, getting caught not by a witch, but by a murderess, turning the tables on her (with a flame-thrower) and becoming assassins. While they nominally work for Julius (who, as the third volume tells the readers, actually is Ludwig’s half-brother), they remember the prince as a good person and in the end can’t kill him.

The plot really thickens, as the prince is returning home - which will force his father to do something. The interesting question is how much power the king has. Is it absolute and he can just kick out his son? Or does he have to listen to other people and can’t just disinherit the prince at will? The fact alone that Julius tries to have his older half-brother killed, suggests he can’t just be promoted ahead. And the fact that Ludwig hasn’t been kicked out before (as he and his father really don’t get along), suggests the same thing.

If you’re into manga, you might find you like this story (provided you can live with the twisted images of your favourite fairytales). It’s dark, full of blood, but at the same time also shows quite some humorous parts.

The seedy sites of the net

Over the last couple of days I've been surfing the seedier sites of the internet. It was both amusing and disturbing - but on the whole more amusing, I should say.

It all started out with the only "Echi"-link I had before ("Echi" has been coined as a synonym for "Hentai" - Manga/Anime with sexual content -, because "echi" is the way Japanese pronounce the letter "H"). Starting there I travelled blind, clicking on links that seemed interesting (and included words like "free", because just for looking around I surely won't pay any money) until the number of links in my "Echi"-category went up by 300 percent (as I've added three new links, featuring manga-styled flash games, mostly).

What I've found, was disturbing sometimes, as a lot of "Hentai"-movies (and games) are hardcore and there's still the strange category of tentacle-movies out there. ("Tentacle-movies" come from a Japanese Law, that might have been withdrawn by now, but I'm not sure. Originally showing genitals, especially male genitals, was forbidden, so the producers of animated porn-movies created demons or aliens with loads of slightly penis-like tentacles. You might start up your imagination now as to where that leads to in a porn movie. Go on, I'm sure you can't think up anything the movies have not shown by now.)

The more amusing parts came from most of the games, though. Part of the amusement is the question of what the creators took before actually creating games like those, part comes from the graphics - and the sounds. I rarely watch websites with my speakers on, but in this case I did and got more terrible and unfitting synchros than ever before. Especially the German accent of one character in a small movie clip was hideous and rather made me laugh.

A lot of feminists out there might state now that porn of any kind is belittling and humiliating women - and on the whole they're right -, but as most of the stuff I found is animated and largely exaggerated, I can't really take it serious. In addition, as it only happens to animated characters instead of real people, I see it as an abstraction rather than a reality.

The seedier sites of the internet - I wouldn't want to live there, but it was fun to take a look around. And I surely learned a lot about human nature...

Something from the dojinshi

© Tanja Meurer

I wrote about a dojinshi I got (dojinshi are manga drawn by fans and/or artists who publish them themselves) some time ago. I've read the stories by now and I really liked them, both the stories and the styles in which they were drawn (as two artists have done the work together, both of them supplying stories and artworks).

The artwork above is from one of the artist, named "Golden Dawn" and showing a man - although it doesn't really look like it. I might add another artwork from the same artist during the next days, this one showing someone in a kilt, just for Kate.

More Kaori Yuki

As I have stated more than once, I'm not only a manga-fan, but also a fan of Kaori Yuki's work. Currently luck seems to be on my side, as far as this is concerned.

Two of her manga are going to be published this year, "Perfume Master" has been published now, the second volume of "Ludwig Revolution" will be published in December.

"Perfume Master" is the story of a young man with exceptional talents. His sense of smell is keen enough to even smell out a certain type of rose perfume on a person wearing a large bouquet of roses. And this is was usually gets him into trouble. And it's his cousin who gets him out of it again - the girl does not only look like a model (she's from France, her father married an aunt of the perfume master and brought her into the marriage), but also is a very dangerous fighter. Although, admittedly, sometimes it's his cousin who gets both of them into trouble.

As usually, the story of "Perfume Master" (or rather the three stories) is a very dark one. The secrets the young man finds out about usually have to do with murder, death and revenge. And the characters all have the special look I like so much, the rather unusual look only Kaori Yuki draws.

The first volume of "Ludwig Revolution" on the other hand was published quite some time ago, including four different stories based on European fairy tales. They were connected by the main character, Prince Louis (or Ludwig, as both names have the same base) who is looking for a bride. Ludwig/Louis is a rather strange character, looking for girls with big breasts (although in a side note the author admits it's rather more her obsession than his...). He also tends to fall for murderous, endangered or cursed girls, which in turn gets him into trouble as well, very much to the dismay of his servant William who then has to try and get him out of that trouble again. Neither Snow White (who, in this story, really is a scheming little bitch), Little Red Riding Hood (who was William's childhood crush and has turned into an assassin), Sleeping Beauty (who dies upon being awaken after a hundred years - what do you expect, honestly?) or a girl wanted by Bluebeard (who's quite a weakling, and stupid, mistaking the over six feet tall prince for a girl) have proven to be the right bride.

The second volume will feature four more European fairy tales and I'm already really waiting for it - I always thought one volume wasn't enough. And I hope Dorothea, the witch from "Sleeping Beauty" (in the first volume) will be making another appearance. So I'll wait for volume two and hope for more ghastly, bloody and scary stories to feast upon.

And I hope for yet more manga by Kaori Yuki who is just as fascinated by the dark side of the human mind as I am...

Plans for a nice weekend

My weekend is - again - overshadowed by horror. But it's the kind of horror I really like - the movie kind.

"The Hound of the Baskervilles" (the version with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee) and all three parts of "Scream" will be running in my DVD-drive and I've got a doujinshi aptly named "Dreams and Nightmares" to read. There's even, now that I think of it, some Japanese short stories I haven't finished. So I guess I'll be entertained and I'll try to write some more posts for my blog instead of getting lazy.

By the way: there's a lot of versions of "The Hound of the Baskervilles", but I prefer two of them: the one with Basil Rathbone and the one I'll be watching this weekend.

Bishounen

As I've promised in the post about "Werewolf Warrior" (which I will put up right after this one, meaning you're probably going to read it first), I will use this post to explain what the word "Bishounen" (can also be written "bishonen") means.

As a translation, the word simply means "pretty boy", but that doesn't tell you a lot, does it?

What it really refers to, is a special type of man you'll meet in manga (and not only those mainly for women) and even in old legends and stories from Japan. The "bishounen" is a man who usually looks slightly (or more) feminine, but isn't necessary behaving like a woman. "A man as pretty as a woman" is a description even given in old tales. It refers to that slightly effeminate type of man, but doesn't mean the person is nice, helpless or friendly. A bishounen can be everything, even nasty, dangerous and outright evil.

In fact, I found the link to the "Black Widower" stories about two youthful vampires on a website dedicated to bishounen - which also featured Angelo, one of the main characters of the "Black Widower" series. Angelo (and his lover Weasel) are anything but nice and helpless - they're predators.

Bishounen are a Japanese speciality ... and it helps to know about them before you watch a Japanese movie (as I did with "Werewolf Warrior"), because in Europe or America we tend to think a "feminine" man has to be weak and a good-looking man has to be good. That's not always the case.

Finally another good Vampire Story

Vampires are among the creatures of the night that are most portrait in novels, comics and movies, but to find a descent vampire manga is quite difficult. This week I managed.

That might have something to do with the fact that there aren't vampires the way we see them in Japan. They have blood-drinking and life-sucking ghosts, but that's not the same. Nevertheless, the Western vampire is quite known in Japan these days. There are some good vampire stories in Manga, Kaori Yuki, forever one of my favourite artists, has done quite a few of them. The first "God Child" story featuring Jezebel Disraeli and Delilah, "Kafka", has a strong vampire motif, although the vampire is man-made. There's a short story about genetic vampires in the short story collection "Boy's next door". And then there's "Blood Hound". Apart from that I can only name "Model", "Rebirth" and "Hellsing" as stories mainly dealing with vampires (but "Model" and "Rebirth" technically aren't manga, because they come from Korea).

Since this week I can add another series to that list: "Trinity Blood". I'd completely ignored it before, because the few things I'd read about it weren't very interesting and I didn't see any of the manga until volume 5, because I wasn't going through the manga at the shop at the train station for a while and my favourite book-shop didn't have them.

But this week I stumbled over volume 5 - and then ordered the other 4 over amazon. The story is good, the graphics are, too. And, in addition, the whole scenario (set in a future in which the vampires have taken control of most of the world and only the church is still fighting them) is quite interesting. And two of the main characters just make up for a lot of funny situations ... that's what I like in a manga with a lot of fights.

And with "Fairy Cube" and "Detective Loki - Ragnarok" complete (since this month) and "Ludwig Revolutions" volume 2 coming 'sometimes' in the future, I can afford starting a new series...

I just love vampire stories!

Villains

Okay, I thought I'd better write the post about villains immediately. I might forget about it otherwise.

I've always had a thing for the villains, no matter whether it was fairy tales as a child or those bad guys in the movies these days. And it's not just the whole "dark and dangerous" thing. (Although, admittedly, it's part of my fascination.)

Usually, the hero is far less interesting than the villain(s) of a story. The hero tends to be a 'good guy' who feels it's his duty to rid the world of a few baddies. Villains on the other hand usually have issues and goals - and hidden motives, too. They are always good for a surprise in the middle of the story.

And - as a writer - I also have to admit that writing a scene for a villain is much more fun. You can go deep inside your soul - to those dark parts with the extra padlock attached - and pull out all those dark feelings and evil wishes you have ever harboured and let the bad guy (or girl) actually make them come true!

The background of the bad guys usually doesn't get told as precisely as that of the good guy (though I like the background of Batman ... but then, he's me anyway...). That leaves more space for the fantasy. And as most of those villains aren't really nice ('nice' and 'villain' don't go well together), one might wonder why they are the way they are.

Villains are quite fascinating on the whole. They get to do everything everybody sooner or later wishes to be able to do. And in the end they usually also get an interesting death. No 'heart attack' or something like that. Not your average deadly accident. No, villains are shot, squashed by something big or something else like that. Sometimes there even isn't enough for a grave ... which is good as well, because a person without a grave may still be alive (even without being Hammer Production's "Dracula").

That's another trait about villains I like a lot: the way they pop up after everybody thought they were dead already. It's cool and it makes stories much more interesting.

To add something that fits with my post about heroes: Villains work marvellously with heroes, obviously. The main reason for this might be that while heroes are slightly masochistic, villains are sadists. Heroes submit themselves, as I've pointed out in the post mentioned above, to a good cause; villains, on the other hand, want to control and dominate. It's a perfect relationship ... in a strange way.

The will - or quite often rather the need - to dominate is an important feature for everyone who wants to be a villain. A villain doesn't ask his henchmen to do something, he demands it ... and if they fail to obey, it's most likely the last failure of their life. That's a really strict management - which a lot of managers probably would love.

Yes, I love villains more than heroes - and I always will. They're just so much more interesting than heroes.

Heroes

While I was going through Bitchy Jones' Diary yesterday and read about her view on heroes, I found myself rather forced to agree with her: In many ways heroes have to be masochists.

Now, that might sound odd to you - especially if you're male as well and consider yourself to be a tough guy, just like your favourite Superhero (whoever he may be). But really think about it.

Heroes - no matter from what genre or time, really - always have to suffer. It's some sort of natural law. Take whoever you want from your favourite comics or movies and think about it: Is there any story without the hero getting beaten, trapped, bound or somehow injured? And what kind of person would lead a life full of pain and humiliation out of their free will? Only proves my point (or rather Bitchy's).

Then there's the whole 'sacrifice'-business. You don't have to look into religion to find that principle ... just imagine one rather normal situation for the hero-guy of your choice: The damsel in distress (and god, do I sometimes hate those) has been caught by the villain and he threatens her with the weapon of your choice. What's the hero probably going to do (provided there's no way to disarm or kill the villain safely)? "Let her go and take me instead." And the villain is stupid enough to do it ... it's a shame, villains these days. If I were the villain, I'd say "sure", let the girl go, then grab the hero, shoot the girl and shoot the hero right afterwards - problem solved, world domination, here I come. But that kind of thinking probably is the reason why female super villains are so rare ... too pragmatic.

But back to heroes ... maybe some time in the future I'll do a post on villains, too.

The real heroic trait seems being ready to suffer for a good cause. Of course, you also get to kill a couple of people and usually you get a pretty girl to impress who'll fall for you. Even though, with some Superheroes, I can't fight the impression that they'd like a pretty boy falling for them a lot more (but that's an old discussion).

And if you look back a couple of decades, to the good, old time of the "Film Noir" and the tough, cigarette-smoking private eyes, you'll find they almost never got through a case without getting seriously beaten up by someone. (I personally often wondered whether or not they could actually get an health insurance in a job like that.)

So, let's bring this all together: Heroes often suffer and obviously either don't mind it or even like it. They submit themselves not so much to a person, but to a good cause they're ready to suffer or even die for. And that's not new, even ancient heroes had to suffer a lot (and probably looked quite yummy while doing so ... judging from the fashion styles of that time).

Heroes ... I've just found a good reason to like them (and a good reason why I personally like villains better: they get to torture the heroes, after all).

Guys I like

This post, too, will contain a lot of pictures. I have actually taken care of not picturing any real actor in this post, because to me it is far more important what those characters represent than what the real person would look like. They are just fictitious characters in games or animated movies. So let's begin, shall we?

Alucard (Hellsing):

In the case of this picture, it's the Hellsing OVA about which I've actually written something in the past. Alucard is a midian ... that's 'Hellsing-speak' for vampire, but usually is used for stronger vampires, vampires that were not (Warning: Spoiler ahead!) created artificially. There are some other midians around in the story, mostly shown is Alucard's 'child' Seras Victoria - a young policewoman who gets mortally injured and changed by him in the first OVA.

Alucard actually is - as volume 8 of the manga informs the readers (Warning: Spoiler ahead!) - nobody else but Dracula himself. (Well, I didn't see that coming, it wasn't as if his name would tip anybody off ... just kidding here.) And he has a variety of different looks, but this is what he looks like during most of the story. Quite cute, huh (he really is, but the picture I chose more reflects his dark sides)? Except for the eyes, of course, but that can't be helped (although, admittedly, Seras has blue eyes in the OVA, unless she's using her vampire powers).

What do I like about Alucard? Well, first of all I have a thing for the dark guys around ... I'm not a fan of Prince Charming (no, not even when Shrek is the alternative, give me an ogre every time ... at least I know where I stand then). Apart from that he's sarcastic (and without the vow "no physically real people" Dr. House would have made it into this post) and has a very low view of humans - although he serves one. And if this weren't a post about guys I like, his mistress Integra would be in it, too. He is very old, cunning, dangerous and likes to fight ... a lot.

Pater Alexander Anderson (Hellsing):

Okay, nominally a Roman-Catholic priest would be a good guy. So am I acting against what I just stated? No, not in this case.

Actually, Anderson is a mystery wrapped up in an enigma to me. Up 'til volume 8 of the manga I thought he was younger than the leader of the 13th division of the Vatican, Enrico Maxwell. Now, there's another guy with pale hair (see below), but Enrico isn't really my favourite as far as the 13th division is concerned, Anderson is. But during the manga it turned out (Warning: spoiler ahead!) that he actually knew Enrico as a child, so he must be a lot older than the rest of the division. As he's a regenerator (he can even regenerate head-shots, a good thing if you want to go against Alucard, by the way), that can actually be explained ... shocking.

Anderson is a Paladin of the Roman-Catholic church and absolutely believes in cleaning the earth of all monsters - and a few protestants and other heathens, if the chance presents itself... He's very hard to kill and only gives up a fight when he really, really, really has no chance to win it (unlike some dumb heroes he knows it's better to "live to fight another day"). Together with Alucard, he's pure dynamite, naturally. They obviously were born to fight each other, as none of them can really defeat the other one. Alucard can't be killed by any means working on a 'normal vampire' (not even by beheading) and to stop Anderson, you probably would have to ground him into very fine powder (and even then, keep it in a thick safe somewhere far, far away).

What I like most about Anderson is his total devotion to his cause - and the fact that he looks after orphans whenever his fighting abilities are not needed. Not married (Roman-Catholic priest, remember), likes children, won't die in a car crash on his way to work one day and loves to fight? Perfect combination ... except for the priest-thing, of course.

The Witcher:

As the game isn't even out yet, I've got no real idea about this guy, but he looks good (provided the rest fits, I like guys with pale hair, again, Lucius Malfoy only didn't make it into this post because he's played by a real actor).

I have learned from the articles about this game that he's a loner, more or less fighting for himself. That's what I really like about heroes (and it's too bad I can't get "Discworld Noir" to run properly on my new computer, I'd have another anti-hero to show then), especially about the slightly dark ones. And judging from the cinematic trailer I've taken this picture from, this guy really knows how to fight, too. Hasn't just got a sword, but magic and a chain as well. (To all Femdoms out there who might be reading this [as I'm listed on a Femdom blog, thank you very much, E, you made me so proud to be writing all this stuff]: Yep, he comes with his own chain, but it might prove difficult to tie it around him.)

Prince Arthas (WarCraft 3):

The only guy without a picture, currently. Think of his looks as a Witcher with greenish-blue eyes and a very pale face - he's undead, after all, currently even housing the spirit of the Lich Lord.

During the four campaigns of "WarCraft 3" (the main program, not the add-on), I've grown accustomed to Arthas as he's the hero in the first two (having been a Paladin before he becomes an undead knight). I've also seen how he turned bad while at the same time thinking he was doing the right thing, although probably not while killing his own father in his throne room... But by that time, he had lost his soul already.

What I like about Arthas is that he's a tragically bad guy. He was setting out with good intentions and ended up destroying the very kingdom he fought for - very ironic. And of course, as with all of those guys up to this one, he's a good fighter.

Well, this really turns out to be a post about fighters, doesn't it?

I happen to like men who know how to fight. For one thing, fighters tend to have muscular bodies, but not 'pumped up' too much (that would make them too slow and the perfect fighter in my eyes is agile as well as strong). They also don't shy away from pain, otherwise they wouldn't be in the business.

I also like bad guys ... who else could keep up with my bitchy side? No, really, I've never been interested in the nice guys, the princes, the heroes. They are just too easy to see through. Bad guys have a lot more hidden underneath, these days. (And, coming back to Shrek, I could also say "Bad guys are like onions, they have layers".)

Side Stories

This isn't exactly the most important thing I've ever written about, but then ... this is my blog, so I can write whatever I want.

Most manga series I read - or have read - contain side stories in all or at least some volumes. So does "Kizuna", one of the first yaoi-stories I've read (though not the first one). I prefer the two side stories in volume 6 and 9, dealing with a pair of hit-men. The story in volume 6 explains how the younger of the two - they both also feature in the main story of volume 5 and 6 - became a hit-man. The story in volume 9 deals with some mission they take over after they've gotten together again (during the main story of volume 6).

There are other side stories I like (almost) better than the main stories. One of the "Zetsuai"-volumes, for example, features the story of a bodyguard which is quite good.

And in addition they are much shorter, of course...

What I got this weekend

If my blog were a school essay, this would rather be titled "What I did on my holidays", I know. But as this isn't a school essay (it would be waaaaay to late anyway, I've been out of school for 12 years now), it will only feature what the weekend brought me.

To make it short: one more "Girl Genius" comic, my You Higuri art book "Jewel", a sore throat and a common cold.

How I managed to get a sore throat, is beyond me, but the common cold definitely came from a colleague at work (which is over now, actually) who came to work even though he had one himself (very dutiful, but in essence also very stupid, risking to make everyone else sick).

I had planned on going to see the movie "300", but due to the first bouts of my sicknesses (can't I just have one at a time, please?), I didn't go. I guess I can live without seeing all those almost-naked men. (My main motivation, actually, I don't care about Sparta loosing a battle, they fought enough of them anyway - if men go to see a movie because there's a good-looking and scantily clad woman in it, then why can't I go see a fantasy-history movie just because of the good-looking, well-build, almost-naked guys, huh?) And I know what the story is about, thanks to Harald Schmidt, a man who can explain everything with a couple of children's toys and some food. (Watch for yourself, I hope you understand German, it's not half as funny otherwise.)

I'm now waiting for two more "Girl Genius" comics. One is on it's way … if you can trust the last email from amazon I got. I've gotten volume 1, 2 and 5 at the moment and will have volume 3 before the week is over (if I'm right and it's the one with the slaver wasps and the big battle on board the airship). Volume 4 will follow - some day. I can't really say when.

I'm also really, really happy about the art book. I own a couple of them by now - among them a Frank Frazetta art book (he painted covers for a lot of cheap paperback novels, but his pictures are great, most of the time better than the contents of the novels), a Brom art book (the guy is specialized on fantasy environments and monsters, works for books, role-playing games, trading card games and other stuff), an art book from both "WarCraft" and "World of WarCraft" and two Japanese ones ("Angel Cage" from my favourite manga artist Kaori Yuki and the "DragonBall" art book). With "Jewel" - a 'best of' of You Higuri's work - I have a third Japanese art book now (I used to own 6 "Sailor Moon" art books, too, but I'm selling them).

I like You Higuri's work (even though I like Kaori Yuki more) and most of the pictures in the art book are awesome. Some I know already - or can at least identify -, because they come from manga I know. There's a lot from "Cantarella" (a fantasy variety of the story of Cesare Borgia - go and google for the guy if you're interested in the historical background). Then there's almost all the coloured stuff from "Gorgeous Carat", a story set in the 1920s featuring an Arabian-French thief called "Noir" and a French aristocrat with the name "Floréan". I love the characters and the story (but would have liked a coloured picture from Solomon Sugar or Azura). Then there seems to be one "Gakuen Heaven" picture (though it's not the cover of the German version). Apart from those I can't recognize much, but I've already fallen in love with several, among them a very good picture of a vampire and some male couples (slash/yaoi - one of my great weaknesses). I would have liked some stuff from "Seimaden" (especially Titius, the angel-demon and his lover Zadei), but I guess those coloured works are in another art book, maybe "Poison" which I would still like to get.

So that's what I got this weekend. The sore throat is already passing and the cold will be over soon enough, too. The comic and the art book, on the other hand, will stay. While my nose is running and I think I'll be coughing up my lung soon enough, I'm really glad that it isn't the other way around...

UPDATE: I've gotten volume 3 of "Girl Genius" today, so I'm just waiting for volume 4 now...

Goodbye to my favourite magazine

For quite a while now (since the end of February) it has been official: MangaSzene, the only magazine I've read regularly, will only continue as a series of 'specials'. I'm not quite sure whether I'll really continue reading it.

The problem I see is not that the magazine will not continue the way it was before - changes are a part of life and I have learned to deal with them -, but the fact that it will be continued in a loose order. No regular rhythm as before, no knowing exactly when the next one will be out. And I'm pretty sure I won't get it from the news dealer any longer ... they won't stock the 'specials', I guess.

A lot of other readers who also post in the forum of the MangaSzene see this problem as well, but it doesn't seem as if we can change it ... and it was hard enough to get the information about what will happen. No. 36 simply did not appear when it should and the very next day - or so I think - there was a new thread in the news-section claiming that the MangaSzene would not continue as before.

So right now I have to say "Goodbye" to the good feeling every two (or three during the last two issues) months when I went to the news dealer at the train station and bought it, sheaving through the 'news'-section on the way home. "Goodbye" to the hours spent on my comfy couch with all the articles and other sections of the magazine I could browse through without having to sit at my computer or go online. And "Goodbye" to the funny comics on the last page I used to read first (or at least almost first), together with the 'famous last words'-section. "Goodbye" to MangaSzene as I've known it from issue No. 1 ... and "Hello" to the 'specials' I'll have to order over the shop - whenever I think of them. "Hello" to not knowing exactly when the next issue will be around. "Hello" to missing some issues because I'm not interested in the main topic. "Hello" to trying and find the promised articles on the MangaSzene-website.

Gods, I really feel a bit depressed right now - or in the right mood to kill someone in a very brutal way - even without a "Killerspiel" in sight.

Case Closed?

"Case Closed" is the American title of an anime-series from Japan, known there (and in Germany) as "Detective Conan".

(Grown-up Shinichi above.)

Even though the main character - Shinichi Kudo - gets transformed into a six-year-old during the first two episodes, the stories are not necessarily for kids only. It's a crime series and so there's a crime - quite often a murder - in every episode. They are not 'nice' murders either - in the first episode a man is decapitated by a rather ingenious device while riding a roller coaster, for example. And despite the fact that the really gruesome stuff is rarely shown, it's still interesting.

('Shrunken' Conan below.)

In addition - and that's what I like most about the series - the whole episode is always created in a way to allow the audience to try and solve the crime as well ... the clues are shown - very unlike some other series.

(Ran and Kogoro Mori above.)

Shinichi is 'shrunken' by two mysterious 'Men in Black' (not Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones) and then moves in with his friend Ran and her father, a rather unsuccessful private investigator to find a trace of them. Unfortunately - as the originally 16-year-old now looks like a boy of six - he's forced to go back to primary school where he meets new three new friends.

(Conan's new friends below.)

His only help comes from his former neighbour (Shinichi's parents, a former actress and a writer of crime-stories, live abroad), a scientists who develops various gimmicks for him, like a bow-tie that allows him to imitate various voices, sneakers that allow him to kick a foot-ball (or other object) strong enough to bring an adversary down and a tracker that can be placed on any surface and can be followed with a little transparent monitor build into Conan's fake glasses. Those glasses, together with a little microphone also allow him to listen into conversations.

(Conan's neighbour below.)

The creator of the series, Gosho Aoyama, has chosen the names of most of his main characters carefully. "Conan Edogawa" is a combination of the two crime-story authors Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes) and Rampo Edogawa (a very famous Japanese writer). Kogoro Mori has the same first name as Rampo Edogawa's detective Kogoro Akechi. The police inspector called into most cases is named Inspector Megure, a name which sounds a lot like "Maigret", George Simenon's famous inspector. Finally Conan's neighbour, the professor, is named Agasa, which sounds almost like "Agatha", the first name of Agatha Christie.

The series is still running - both as a manga and as an anime - and Conan still is a little boy, but by now a lot of different characters have appeared, among them a rival school-boy detective, a girl 'shrunken' by the same poison (she used to work for the 'Men in Black') and a mysterious thief - who actually comes from another manga the inventor of Conan has created: Kaito Kid ('kaito' is the Japanese word for 'thief').

My personal library

Books are a great thing, really!

I've always loved books, even before I could read them myself. One of my fondest childhood memories is a collection of cassettes my father recorded for me because he couldn't be there every evening to read me my favourite books before I went to bed. They've disappeared a long time ago - unlike another treasure I've still got from my childhood, a book my parents made for me, my mother drawing the pictures and my father typing the story -, but I still remember them fondly.

I guess I have to thank my father for introducing me to books. When I was a small child, he used to take me to the public library every couple of weeks on Saturday to pick some books for himself and one or two books for me - which he read to me, of course. When I was seven, I got my own library card and was allowed to check out books for myself. During my early puberty I used to go to the library every second week (because on Saturday I had school every second week, so I could only go to the library on Saturday when I didn't have school), during the holidays sometimes even twice a week. I used to read very much the same things I prefer today: adventure stories, crime stories, fantasy stories and a fair amount of non-fiction books about interesting topics (such as movies, sharks or the supernatural). I've still got a fond memory of the various Time Life books about fairies, wizards and witches, magic, monsters and other stuff. They had very beautiful pictures inside couple with texts that were easy to read and understand.

Today I usually buy books instead of checking them out at a library. For one thing I prefer to read English or American novels in the original language and there aren't that many English books at the public library of my hometown. And I tend towards rather special topics whenever I look for books as well. So I buy them ... and have build up my own personal library over the last ten or so years. I've got more than 1,000 books in my little library at the moment, most of them novels of various times, but also with a fair amount of manga and non-fictional books thrown in. Sometimes I sort out books for sale, because I still buy new books regularly and there's a limit to the amount of books I can keep at home.

I love having my own personal library and can hardly imagine a life without them ... even though I know, of course, that there are a lot of people out there who live a happy life without books. I love TV and DVDs as well, but my first and strongest love are books - and they will ever be. I could live without a TV, without DVDs, even without the internet and a computer (provided I get enough paper and ink in exchange), but I couldn't live without books ... pretty much the same way I can't live without air.

Woohoo! I've got "Hellsing Ultimate"

Another good thing I want to talk ... or rather write ... about is the new "Hellsing" OVA. I've been a fan of the TV-series (and the manga as well), but the original series breached off from the story told in the manga after volume 2 and finished "Hellsing" off in a different way (actually the manga is still running and currently 8 volumes are out in Germany). The new OVA-series will - as far as this can be seen already - follow the story of the manga.

The basics of "Hellsing" are thus: "Hellsing" is the name of a secret organisation which hunts down the undead in Great Britain and the Commonwealth. It's also the name of the family leading the organisation. The current leader - and last living member of the family, as far as I know - is Lady Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing, about 26 and since her 16th year of life in the leading position. Lady Integra does not just command a small army (armed better, if I may mention it, than many regular armies in the world), she also commands one, later on two, undead. The vampire Alucard, also know as the "No-Life King", has been under her command since her 16th year, when she was almost killed by her uncle after her father's death, because the man wanted to take over the organisation and she had been chosen to become the next leader. At the beginning of the story, both in the manga and in the old TV-series (and, of course, in the new OVA-series as well), Alucard is forced to deadly wound a young policewoman while on a mission and offers her to become a vampire herself - an offer which she takes. Seras Victoria is still rather caught between her old life as a human and her new life as a vampire, not drinking blood and not sleeping in a coffin while she can help it. Nevertheless more than one episode of the manga show she's quite powerful already ... whenever she looses control enough to let the vampiric side take over.

The second volume of the OVA-series deals with a story already show during the TV-series: "Death Zone". The story of the TV-series mostly differs from the manga after this episode (or rather episodes, as this was one of the two-parters). It's a turning point in the manga, because with this episode the real enemy of Hellsing, the organisation "Millennium" is named for the first time.

As someone who has seen the 'original' animated version of the story before, I can tell that this new version is much better. The story has become a little longer ... the TV-episodes were about 20 minutes long each, the OVA-episode has 45 minutes ... and is retold a lot better and more true to the manga.

As far as the voices are concerned, it seems to me as if they've gotten the same voice talents (in Germany) they've used for the TV-version as well. All the voice fit quite well with the personalities of the characters and - unlike in some other animes for adults I've seen - the actors obviously took their job seriously and did it as if they were working for a normal series with real actors.

The graphics are different as well, especially as far as Integra (longer and less straight hair) and Seras (still blue eyes after the change and larger breasts) are concerned. On the whole the looks of the characters are closer to the manga and less the 'average' anime-look (the manga doesn't have the average look as well). The pacing is faster, especially in the fight scenes. Both the fight of Jan Valentine (one of the enemies) against Walter and Seras and the fight of Luke Valentine (the other enemy and Jan's brother) against Alucard are faster and shown from less regular perspectives.

I already like the OVA a lot, even though I have only seen one episode this far. It's better than the TV-series, not just things as animation frequencies (which are always lower for TV-series in Japan than they are for OVA- or movie-productions) or the size of the screen ('movie' 16:9 instead of 'TV' 4:3). The way the story is told is much better, the characters look better and the whole presentation (including music) is better as well.

"Fairy Cube" and why I love it

As I've mentioned before, I love the manga by Kaori Yuki, each and every of them.

So you can probably imagine how happy I was when I found her new series, "Fairy Cube", at my favourite bookshop. I bought it on a whim - and because I knew I'd probably like anything written and drawn by her - and wasn't disappointed.

I can't tell too much about the story at the moment - I've just read the first volume of a multi-volume series -, but it's already getting interesting. For one thing the main character has already died and become some kind of wandering spirit, just to come back into another body, just to get his own back.

Then there's the evil spirit which has taken over his body after making his own father stab him. It's a changeling - there's a lot of European and especially Irish/Celtic mythology in it, something I like a lot as well - who has chosen the hero's body when they were both little.

Then there's a strange man who can see fairies and lost souls and can also do magic. He's behind both the hero loosing his body (because of a cube with a lizard in it which he gave the hero, in the story those cubes house the spirits of fairies and other supernatural creatures who want to have their own human body) and getting a new one. His eye-patch reminds me of 'One-eyed Cross', a character from "Neji", another of Kaori Yuki's stories.

Then there's the grandmother of the boy in whose body the hero returns to the world of the living - after the boy died because the fairy trying to take over his body could not control it. She's blind, but she can see more than one might expect - as the last scene of the first volume shows.

Then there's the girl he loves and who has - in her youth - also believed in fairies. She's in danger because of the changeling in the hero's body who wants her - because he knows the hero watches over her and loves her.

Then there's the hero's father who has to live with almost - as the body is not dead - killing his own son ... and suddenly being treated completely different by him.

Then there's a little fairy living with the magician with the eye-patch. She wants a human body, too, but she also wants to help the hero after seeing how completely he's focused on his goals.

Finally there seems to be a third party in the magical department, a seemingly young boy who turns up a the site of the burned down shop of the magician and will surely - if I know anything about the way Ms. Yuki writes - play an interesting role in the future.

As always there's beautifully drawn people and other creatures (like the translucent fairies you can see in some panels whenever the hero calls up the other world) and loads of blood. As always there's Kaori Yuki's style with a lot of grey and shadows. There's the horror coming right after a comedic break. It's a very promising first volume and I'm sure I won't regret buying and reading the series.