Sweet Bitter Beauty Song

Music Playlist at MixPod.com

Sakurakou K-ON Bu

Life's a very Sweet and Bitter Beauty Song
nee kimi nara nani o utau?

Go Ahead or Back... Right or Left
shunkan shunkan sentaku no renzoku
suzushii kao shitetatte igai ni iya, kanari MASHI da shi
Life's a very Sweet and Bitter Beauty Song

inu mitai ni shippo futte kigentori shitari
zuuzuushiku ikirenai donna ni son da to iwarete mo

binkan ga yakkai Teenager kodou ga sugu DOKIDOKI
abarete komaru kedo

onaji SUTEEJI no ue ni iru jan
tte sore dake de nanka yuuki waku ne
teion datte kouon datte
tokui na koe de minna iitai koto Singing So Loud

Choose Friend or Love... Light or Deep
junjou aijou konton de monzetsu
tanoshii kao shitetatte sono ura de kizutsuitetari
Life's a very Sweet and Bitter Beauty Song

neko mitai ni tsume o tatete jibun mamoru you ni
kiyou ni arukenai nando koronde haji kaite mo

sensai ga senbai Teenager komaku ga fui ni FURUFURU
furuete sawagu kedo

onaji NANBAA de naitara ii jan
juunintoiro wa shouchi no ue de
teion datte kouon datte
yakedo shitara minna itai n da shi Shouting So Loud

onaji SUTEEJI no ue ni iru jan
tte sore dake de nanka yuuki waku ne
teion datte kouon datte
tokui na koe de minna iitai koto Singing So Loud
onaji NANBAA de waraeba ii jan
juunintoiro wa shouchi no ue de
teizoku datte kouketsu datte
hontou no kimochi dake dakishimete Shouting So Loud

Life's a very Sweet and Bitter Beauty Song
Life's a very Sweet and Bitter Beauty Song
Life's a very Sweet and Bitter Beauty Song
nee kimi nara nani o utau?

K-On! Music is their PASSION!

K-ON! is an ongoing Japanese four-panel comic strip manga about four female teenagers who after starting high school come together to join their school’s light music or popular music club in order to save it from being abolished due to the lack of members. The four girls are Yui – an easily distracted bundle of energy who plays lead guitar, Mio – the very cute but shy lefthander who plays bass guitar, Ritsu – the club president with energy levels rivaling Yui’s who plays the Drums and Tsumugi – a dumb but filthy rich blonde that cooks very well and plays the keyboard.

K-ON! is an average series that is not worth your time if you are not interested int his type of anime or have better things to watch. I did like the animation, overall production values and the opening and closing themes but I can’t help but say this series underperformed. Hopefully things will get better in a future season, I am already imagining what will happen when the girls discover something called “boys”.

source: http://www.jamaipanese.com/k-on-anime-review/

THE BAND FORMATION HAPPENS...

It's Yui Hirasawa's first year in high school, and she's eagerly searching for a club to join. At the same time, Ritsu Tainaka, a drummer, and her friend Mio Akiyama, a bass player, are desperately trying to save the school's light music club, which is about to be disbanded due to lack of members. They manage to recruit Tsumugi Kotobuki to play the keyboard, meaning they only need one more member to get the club running again. Yui joins, thinking it will be an easy experience for her to play the castanets, the only instrument she knows. However, the other members think their new addition is actually a guitar prodigy...

Fujiko F Fujio : Doraemon's Best Friend.

Fujiko F Fujio is one half of one of the most prolific comic writing team of Fujiko Fujio whose volume of works are probably only rivaled by the famous American comic writing team of (Stan) Lee, and (Jack) Kirby. Birth name Fujimoto Hiroshi, he met his future comic drawing partner Abiko Motoo when he was in fifth grade at an elementary school in his native Toyama. He was impressed by the intelligence and thorough nature of Abiko's story writing style even at that age, and started to draw comic together (although only as a hobby at the time) which continued for over the next 40 years.

In 1952 they made their comic debut with a comic titled "Tenshi no Tamachan" and two years later they moved to Tokyo to pursue their professional career. They were mentored briefly by the late Osamu Tezuka (of Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion fame) after coming to Tokyo like so many young comic artist of the time. Later they recalled seeing a stack of papers few feet high at Tezuka's house which were rejects of his comic pages. Tezuka's standards was so high that even under close inspection they couldn't tell what was wrong with the material. They helped Tezuka pen the last pages of Kimba the White Lion during that period.

In 1956 they formed Shin Manga-To with Fujio Akatsuka, and Ishinomori Shotaro (of Kamen Rider, Kikaida, and Cyborg 009 fame). They were a close knit group of comic writer friends back then who had similar backgrounds of leaving their birth place and coming to Tokyo to start their careers. In the late '50s and early '60s Abiko with Fujimoto mostly penned action adventure comics oriented towards pre-teen boys such as the "Big One", "Silver Cross", and "Umi no Ooji". In 1964 they co-authored "Obake no Q-taro" which later became an animated cartoon series which saw wide spread syndication all over the world including North America, and Hong Kong. They continued their prolific career in the '60s and the '70s by penning other cartoons which saw animated syndication such as Paa Man, Kaibutsu-Kun, and Doraemon. One of their works, Ninja Hattori-kun, became a TV series acted by real live actors.

Later in the '70s Fujiko started writing comics for adults, often depicting the surreal side of society as fiction which included the return of Obake no Q-Taro to the family of now grown up ex-friend Sho-chan. Q-Taro in this episode finds that reality of society robbed the youthful dreams of his ex-friends and returns to his spiritual world disappointed. They also penned a semi-autobiographical comic of their life and career at that time with Fujimoto being depicted as somewhat naive main character.

In 1987 Fujimoto dissolved the partnership with Abiko, and for the first time in over 40 years, they decided to pursue their own careers with Fujimoto taking the pen name Fujiko F Fujio, and Abiko taking the pen name Fujiko Fujio (A). Fujimoto passed away in 1996 when he succumbed to liver failure.

"Doraemon : The Wonder Cat!"

"Doraemon : The Wonder Cat!"

Doraemon (ドラえもん) is a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio (the pen name of Hiroshi Fujimoto) which later became an anime series and Asian franchise. The series is about a robotic cat named Doraemon, who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a schoolboy, Nobita Nobi (野比 のび太).

The series first appeared in December 1969, when it was published simultaneously in six different magazines. In total, 1,344 stories were created in the original series, which are published by Shogakukan under the Tentōmushi (てんとう虫) manga brand, extending to forty-five volumes. The volumes are collected in the Takaoka Central Library in Toyama, Japan. Fujio was born in Toyama.

A majority of Doraemon episodes are comedies with moral lessons regarding values such as integrity, perseverance, courage, family and respect for elders. Several noteworthy environmental issues are often visited, including homeless animals, endangered species, deforestation, and pollution. Topics such as dinosaurs, the flat earth theory, wormhole traveling, Gulliver's Travels, and the history of Japan are often covered.

Doraemon was awarded the first Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga in 1982, and the first Osamu Tezuka Culture Award in 1997. In March 2008, Japan's Foreign Ministry appointed Doraemon as the nation's first "anime ambassador." Ministry spokesman explained the novel decision as an attempt to help people in other countries to understand Japanese anime better and to deepen their interest in Japanese culture." The Foreign Ministry action confirms that Doraemon has come to be considered a Japanese cultural icon. In 2002, the anime character was acclaimed as an Asian Hero in a special feature survey conducted by Time Asia magazine.

"The Story Begins Here..."

Nobi Nobita is a 4th-grade boy in Tokyo. One day, a round, blue cat-style robot (minus ears) pops up in his desk drawer. Nobita's great-great-grandson (or something) lives in the 22nd Century, but thanks to Nobita's mistakes, the entire family is living in poverty. To rectify this, Nobita's descendent is sent Doraemon back to the past, to help prevent Nobita from making mistakes. Of course this is a difficult task since Nobita is the weakest and least intelligent child in his class. Doraemon does, however, have a 4-dimensional pocket on his front, which contains cool gadgets from the future. With these toys, Doraemon will try to help Nobita. Unfortunately, Nobita also has the bad habit of misusing Doraemon's gadgets and landing himself in yet more trouble?

source: myanimelist.net and wikipedia.org (article), google image search (pictures).

"Takehiko Inoue : Dr. T"

"Takehiko Inoue : Dr. T"

Takehiko Inoue is the artist of Slam Dunk. He draws himself as a SD character called Dr. T who appears throughout the series introducing new technical terms in Basketball. You can usually see Dr. T's appearance from the official games Shohoku engages in.

Other than the extraordinarily popular Slam Dunk, Inoue also has another manga based on basketball named Buzzer Beater. Buzzer Beater is a story based on a very different setting than Slam Dunk and focus on the universe's greatest basketball team.

Takehiko Inoue (井上雄彦, Inoue Takehiko, born 1967-01-12 in Okuchi, Kagoshima) is a Japanese manga artist, best known for the basketball manga Slam Dunk, which has become a success both in Japan and overseas. Many of his works are about basketball, Inoue himself being a huge fan of the sport, and many Japanese children started to play basketball because they read the manga. This in turn helped make basketball popular in Japan and across East Asia.

Inoue has been drawing manga mainly in male-oriented magazines. Inoue's name is ordered as Takehiko Inoue on his books sold in North America through Viz Media (Vagabond, Slam Dunk, and Real), although Gutsoon! Entertainment's earlier Slam Dunk translations in North America used Inoue Takehiko.

source: animeslamdunk.com and wikipedia.org (article), yahoo and google image search (pictures).

"Slam Dunk: The Court's On Fire!"

"Slam Dunk: The Court's On Fire!"

Slam Dunk (スラムダンク) is a sports-themed manga series written by Takehiko Inoue about a basketball team from Shōhoku High School. It was first serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump in Japan from 1990 to 1996. Inoue later used basketball as a central theme in two subsequent manga titles: Buzzer Beater and Real.

"Start of the First Half..."

A famous gangster named Sakuragi Hanamichi entered Shohoku high school along with he's four pals. Together they are notoriously known as the Five-member Sakuragi gang! After getting dumped by fifty girls in junior high, Sakuragi is heart broken, it seems he has fallen deep into some sort of love-depression. Then a cute girl approached the red haired tall gangster and asked in a sweet voice :" Do you play basketball?"

Sakuragi is now known as "sportsman Sakuragi"! The cute girl named Haruko who introduced him to basketball taught him the meaning of "Slam Dunk". By calling himself TENSAI, Sakuragi is determined to learn more about basketball then using basketball as the key to enter Haruko's heart. Then something bad happened that shattered Sakuragi's nice and wonderful dream to billions of tiny pieces. -- Rukawa Kaede entered the scene.

After getting yelled at by Haruko, Sakuragi has now slamed back into he's love-depression. Then, he met up with the captain of the basketball team. Ironically, the gorilla like captain is Haruko's brother! Unfortunately, Sakuragi learned of the truly a step too late.

Sakuragi cleans the gym and makes every effort possible to act all nice and kind before Akagi. Finally, Akagi permits the TENSAI to enter the basketball team. Sakuragi trains very hard in the team. Even though he's only doing basic practices, he's being extra patient, strongly believes one day, he's tensai skill will be known to the world!

source: animeslamdunk.com and Wikipedia.org (article), google image search (pictures).

"Yoshihiro Togashi: Hunter X Hunter Creator..."

"Yoshihiro Togashi: Hunter X Hunter Creator..."

Yoshihiro Togashi (冨樫 義博), born April 27, 1966 in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan; he is a Japanese manga artist. He is most notable for having created YuYu Hakusho, for which he received the Shogakukan Manga Award in 1994, and Hunter × Hunter. According to Shonen Jump, Togashi received the Tezuka Award, the most influential new comic artist award in Japan.

Togashi is married to Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of Sailor Moon (he mentioned their marriage in volume 5 of Hunter x Hunter).

From February 2006 to October 2007 Togashi had been on "sick leave" from his current manga Hunter × Hunter. Hunter x Hunter made its return on October 6, 2007, then quickly went back on hiatus on December 5, 2007. It returned from hiatus on March 3, 2008, only to return to hiatus again on May 8, 2008. After another long break, it was officially announced in Weekly Shonen Jump recently that the series will once again make its return on October 5, 2008, eventually going on hiatus once more December 3, 2008. It is currently unknown when this hiatus will end.

source: wikipedia.org (article), google image search (pictures).

"Hunter X Hunter : The Fight Begins"

"Hunter X Hunter : The Fight Begins"

Hunter × Hunter (ハンター×ハンター), pronounced "Hunter Hunter", is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoshihiro Togashi with an anime adaptation. The first chapter of the Hunter × Hunter manga series was published in March 1998, in Weekly Shōnen Jump.

The story of Hunter × Hunter focuses on a young boy named Gon Freecss, who one day discovers that the father he had always been told was dead was alive and well. He learns that his father, Ging Freecss, is a legendary Hunter. Despite the fact that his father abandoned Gon with his relatives in order to pursue his dreams, Gon becomes determined to follow in his father's footsteps, pass the Hunter Examination, and eventually find his father to prove himself as a Hunter in his own right.

The manga series was adapted into an anime produced by Nippon Animation, along three OVAs as well. It premiered on the Japanese terrestrial television network Fuji TV and the satellite television station Animax on October 6, 1999.

On April 27, 2009, the series made its North American television debut on the FUNimation Channel.

"The Story..."

Gon was just a boy who lived in a world where one of the most dangerous professions is a hunter. Many people aspire to be hunters but few are able to prevail over the numerous trials and ultimately succeed. During a chance encounter with a mysterious man Gon discovered that his father is one of the most exemplary hunters, with his fame and reputation spreading far and wide. Unfortunately, his father had abandoned him at an early age and his whereabouts remain unknown. The only clue he left behind is a picture and stories about his exploits. Thus begins Gon's quest to become a Hunter and ultimately, find his father. Along the perilous road he meets Leorio, a slacker with an inclination to medicine, Curapika, who is myterious and aloof, and a young boy of about his age, Killua, a member of an elite assassin family. Together, thay embark to face challenges to realize their shared dream of being a Hunter. What dangers lie ahead in this dangerous and cruel reality in which secrets are protected with lives, and dreams are the pathway to peril?

source: Wikipedia.org and Minitokyo.net (article), Google Image Search (pictures).

"Satoshi Tajiri : The Real Pokemon Master"

"Satoshi Tajiri : The Real Pokemon Master"

Satoshi Tajiri (田尻智) born on August 28, 1965 is a Japanese video game designer best known as the creator of Pokémon.

As a young boy, Satoshi lived in Machida, a suburb of Tokyo and loved to collect bugs. In the late 1970s, the forests and fields that Satoshi loved as a child were paved over by apartments and parking lots. This saddened Tajiri, as modern children would not be able to go bug-catching as he did.

Satoshi did not like school. His father wanted him to be an electrical utility repairman, but this is not what he wanted. His ideas for Pokémon grew, as he wanted to give modern children the chance to hunt for creatures as he did. Satoshi got into games when he was at technical school, spending all his time in arcades.

In 1982, Satoshi and his friends James Hanzatko and Yuusuke Santamaria formed a game magazine, called "Game Freak." One of his Game Freak friends was Ken Sugimori, who would go on to draw all of the concept art for Pokémon. In the early 1980s, he won a contest sponsored by Sega involving making a video game. He later had his first video game, Quinty, published by Namco for the Nintendo Famicom, released outside of Japan as Mendel Palace. In 1991, Satoshi discovered the Game Boy. When he first saw Link Cables, he imagined insects creeping along them, and the Pokémon game franchise was born. The game was given some initial funding and concept work from another game design studio, Creatures Inc. Tajiri named his development company "Game Freak" after his early magazine. He also made Pulseman for the Sega Mega Drive.

Tajiri went to work for Nintendo and spent the next six years working on Pokémon. He later became friends with Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox and Pikmin, who also became a mentor to Tajiri. As a tribute to Tajiri and Miyamoto, Ash Ketchum (the anime counterpart of "Red" in the games) is named Satoshi and Gary Oak (the anime counterpart of "Blue" in the English games, and "Green" in the original Japanese version) is named Shigeru in the Japanese version of Pokémon.

Most recently, Tajiri (along with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata) served as an executive producer for the Game Boy Advance game ScrewBreaker (スクリューブレイカー 轟振どりるれろ, SukuryūBureikā Gōshin Dorirurero), released outside of Japan as Drill Dozer. He has been described by Nintendo officials as exceedingly creative but "reclusive" and "eccentric."

source: Wikipedia.org (article) , Google Image Search (Pictures).

"Pokemon : I wanna Catch them all!"

"Pokemon : I wanna Catch them all!"

Pokémon (ポケモン) is a media franchise published by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri around 1995. Originally released as a pair of interlinkable Game Boy role-playing video games, Pokémon has since become the second most successful and lucrative video game-based media franchise in the world, behind only Nintendo's own Mario series. Pokémon properties have since been merchandised into anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books, and other media. The franchise celebrated its tenth anniversary on February 27, 2005, and as of 23 April 2008 (2008 -04-23), cumulative sales of the video games (including home console versions, such as the "Pikachu" Nintendo 64) have reached more than 186 million copies.

The name Pokémon is the romanized contraction of the Japanese brand, "Pocket Monsters" (ポケットモンスター),[as such contractions are very common in Japan. The term "Pokémon", in addition to referring to the Pokémon franchise itself, also collectively refers to the 493 fictional species that have made appearances in Pokémon media as of the recent release of the newest Pokémon role-playing game (RPG) for the Nintendo DS, Pokémon Platinum. Like the words deer and sheep, the word "Pokémon" is identical in both the singular and plural, as is each individual species name; in short, it is grammatically correct to say both "one Pokémon" and "many Pokémon". In November 2005, 4Kids Entertainment, which had managed the non-game related licensing of Pokémon, announced that it had agreed not to renew the Pokémon representation agreement. Pokémon USA Inc., a subsidiary of Japan's Pokémon Co., now oversees all Pokémon licensing outside of Asia.

"Here starts the great adventure..."

In a world much like our own, there exists over 450 creatures of all shapes, sizes, colors, and personalities, called pocket monsters("pokemon" for short.) Some pokemon are Fire types, some are Water types, some are Grass types, and so on. Some live on land, some in the water, and some live underground. But all pokemon are equipped with special attacks that pertain to whatever type of element they are. Certain people, called pokemon trainers, use pokemon for battles. When drawn into the capture device called a pokeball, pokemon become easily portable. The goal of a pokemon trainer is to have their pokemon battle against other pokemon in order for their pokemon to get stronger.

If a pokemon gets enough battle experience, it could evolve into another, more powerful creature. In order to be a good pokemon trainer, you must capture a lot of pokemon, train some of them to be really strong in pokemon battles, and most importantly, you must get your pokemon to love you and trust you, or else they won't obey you! The Pokemon anime follows the adventures of Ash Ketchum, a pokemon trainer from Pallet Town, who travels the different regions of the pokemon world with his friends, meeting all kinds of people and pokemon, stopping Team Rocket from stealing and controlling rare pokemon, battling against other trainers and gym leaders, and all the while, Ash tries to fulfill his dream of becoming a Pokemon Master and befriend all the pokemon he can.

source: Wikipedia.org and www.animeyume.com/pokemon/pksynopsis.html (Article) and Google Image Search (Pictures).

"Hiromu Arakawa : The Alchemist (Creator)"

"Hiromu Arakawa : The Alchemist (Creator)"

Hiromu was born on May 8th, 1973 in Hokkaido (Japan) with an A blood type. She has stated she was risen at a farm in the country, which probably inspired her cow avatar as well as her "equivalent exchange" theory for her manga Fullmetal Alchemist.Her first work was a one-shot called STRAY DOG, which won the first prize in the 21st Century "Shounen Gangan" 9th Awards. In August 1999, this same work debuted in Gangan.
Her next works were Totsugeki Tonari no Enikkusu and Shanghai Youma Kikai (The Shanghai ghost mistery), both of them one-shots and published in Gangan during the year 2000.

Then, in 2001 (in the August issue of Gangan), the first chapter of Hagane no Renkinjutsushi (Fullmetal Alchemist) was published, becoming her first serialised manga and her greatest hit to date. In 2004, Arakawa-sensei received an award in the Shogakukan Manga Awards (Shounen Section) for it.

Fullmetal Alchemist is still being published, 4 years and 50 chapters after its first appearance, in Monthly Shounen Gangan. It's been compiled in 11 tankoubons (plus some side-stories published in other books, such as Perfect Guides or DX). From 2003 to 2004, the series was loosely adapted into a 51 episodes anime by Studio BONES. On the 23rd July 2005, a movie version titled Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Shamballa wo Yukumono (Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa) premiered at Japanese theaters, following up the anime storyline (which differs greatly from the manga).

In 2005, in the August edition of Monthly Sunday GX (the latest CLAMP work, Kobato, is published here), she released another one-shot titled RAIDEN-18 as a colaboration for this magazine's 5th anniversary.

source: http://www.roy-mustang.net/arakawa/about_arakawa.html (article).

"Full Metal Alchemist : The Philosopher's Stone? Hehe."

"Full Metal Alchemist : The Philosopher's Stone? Hehe."

Fullmetal Alchemist (鋼の錬金術師), is an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. The world of Fullmetal Alchemist is styled after European Industrial Revolution. Set in a fictional universe in which alchemy is one of the most advanced scientific techniques known to man, the story follows the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric, who want to restore their bodies after a disastrous failed attempt to bring their mother back to life through alchemy.

The manga is serialized in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine (starting January 2001) and currently has 22 tankōbon volumes. It was adapted into an animated television series of 51 episodes by Bones from October 4, 2003 to October 2, 2004, later followed by a film sequel that concluded the story of the anime. Fullmetal Alchemist would later spawn a second series called Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which first premiered in Japan on April 5, 2009. A multitude of spin-off novels, original video animations (OVAs), drama CDs, soundtracks, and video games have been adapted from the series. A collectible card game, multiple supplementary books, and a variety of action figures and other merchandise based on the characters of the series have also been released.

"Here Is the Spell..."

The rules of alchemy state that to gain something, one must lose something of equal value. Alchemy is the process of taking apart and reconstructing an object into a different entity, with the rules of alchemy to govern this procedure. However, there exists an object that can bring any alchemist above these rules, the object known as the Philosopher's Stone. The young Edward Elric is a particularly talented alchemist who through an accident years back lost his younger brother Alphonse and one of his legs. Sacrificing one of his arms as well, he used alchemy to bind his brother's soul to a suit of armor. This lead to the beginning of their journey to restore their bodies, in search for the legendary Philosopher's Stone.

source: Wikipedia.org and Myanimelist.net (article), google image search (pictures).

"Nobuhiro Watsuki : The Samurai Legend (Creator)..."

"Nobuhiro Watsuki : The Samurai Legend (Creator)..."

Watsuki-sensei is best known for Rurouni Kenshin, all four OAVs, the movies, the manga, and the TV series. His other works include the Buso Renkin manga doing the story and artwork, and the Yahiko no Sakabato manga doing story and artwork in that as well. In Tokyo, Japan, on May 26, in the year 1970, a Watsuki-sensei was born. He was a child who practiced Kendo, but never progressed.

Although, when in high school, he won the "Pop Step" award for his manga "Podmark." The inspiration for his passion for drawing manga came from his older brother, Osamu Tezuka (the godfather of anime and Atom Boy), and other artists as well. Nobuhiro Watsuki has collaborated with Takeshi Obata ( The mangaka for Hikaru No Go!). Just the same, he's had his share of having his own assistants, such as Eiichiro Oda (mangaka for One Piece) and Hiroyuki Takei (mangaka for Shaman King). He assisted in the production of Arabian Lamp-Lamp and Chikara Mito Densetsu.

In 1992, Watsuki sent to Shueisha Publications his 31-page start-up chapter for the now super-famous Rurouni Kenshin. This peice was titled Rurouni: The Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story. This is the break that made him famous in Japan, and eventually, world famous.

source: http://fan.koukeisha.net/nw-fanlisting/ (article) , google image search (pictures).

"Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story..."

"Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story..."

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Swordsman Romantic Story (るろうに剣心 明治剣客浪漫譚) also known as Rurouni Kenshin, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Nobuhiro Watsuki. The fictional setting takes place during the early Meiji period in Japan. The story is about a fictional assassin named Himura Kenshin, from the Bakumatsu who becomes a wanderer to protect the people of Japan. Watsuki wrote this series upon his desire of making a shōnen manga different from the other ones that were published in that time, with Kenshin being a former assassin and the story taking a more serious tone as it continued. Although the tragedy tone was highly expanded as the manga advanced, Watsuki became determinated to give it a happy ending as it is aimed to teenagers.

The manga initially appeared in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from September 2, 1994, to November 4, 1999. The complete work consists of 28 tankōbon volumes, while years laters it was reprinted into twenty-two kanzenban volumes. Studio Gallop, Studio Deen and SPE Visual Works adapted the manga into an anime series which aired in Japan from January 10, 1996 to September 8, 1998. Besides an animated film, two series of original video animations (OVAs) were also produced. The first adapted stories from the manga that were not featured in the anime, while the second was also a sequel of the manga. Writer Kaoru Shizuka has authored three official Rurouni Kenshin light novels which were published by Shueisha. Several video games have also been released for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 consoles.

"A Story of a Swordsman.."

In the eleventh year of the Meiji Era (1878), a vagabond swordsman is found wandering the streets of Tokyo. A strange man, he carries a reverse-bladed sword and has an x-shaped scar on his cheek. He wants only to be left alone.However, a girl named Kamiya Kaoru accuses him of being the man claiming the identity of the legendary Hitokiri Battousai. This man is murdering people in the name of her family's doujo. When he saves her from the real killer, she invites him to come stay at her doujo, since he obviously has no other place to go. This is the beginning of the story of Himura Kenshin.

Before the Meiji Restoration, Himura Kenshin was known as Hitokiri (Murderer) Battousai. He was the top assassin for the reformist group Ishin Shishi. However, when the old government was overthrown and the fighting had drawn to an end, Hitokiri Battousai had disappeared. Kenshin wandered the countryside for nearly eleven years; the world presumed him dead or lost.

When Kenshin meets Kaoru, he is no longer Hitokiri Battousai, for he has sworn never to take another life again. His sword is not a regular sword, but a reverse-bladed sword, meaning that he cannot kill anyone with his sword, but he can defend himself. Kenshin is a man who is trying to escape his past, and create a future for himself. With the help of Kaoru and the others that he meets, he may just have a chance.

source: Wikipedia.org and Ex.org (Article), Google Image Search (Pictures).

"Jin Kobayashi : The Principal of School Rumble..."

"Jin Kobayashi : The Principal of School Rumble..."

Creator and author of School Rumble. In the anime, he voices the role of Sailor F in Episode 25. He also narrates the prehistoric section of OVA 2. He seems to be interested in keeping a low profile and as such, relatively little is known about him. An interesting point is that Kobayashi-sensei's appearance resembles Harima, a fact that caused some fan speculation on how much of Harima is based off of himself.

Of the few public events he has joined, Kobayashi Jin has been seen at the 6th Comic Exhibition at Taipei and also Kawaii Kon 2006 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Kobayashi Jin was born on 25th May, 1977. He was either born in Tokyo or Chiba, based on two conflicting accounts.Kobayashi Jin started to draw manga seriously in his college years. In 2001, he won the Weekly Shounen Magazine’s Rookie Award (only open to amateurs), giving him the opportunity to serialise School Rumble in the same magazine in the following year, where he has continued to write for the past 4 years. In 2006, Natsu no Arashi, another manga by him started in GanGan WING.

• Favourite Manga: Doraemon


• Favourite Idol: Indiana Jones


• Favourite Food: Curry


• Least Favourite Food: Shrimp


• Favorite School Rumble Character: Takano Akira


• Hobby: Basketball


• Famous Friends: Akamatsu Ken (mangaka - Love Hina/Negima), Arima Keitarou (Tsukuyomi Moonphase).

source: Wannabe Fansubs.info (Article and Picture), Yahoo Image Search (Pictures).

"Let's Get Ready To Rumble with School Rumble!"

"Let's Get Ready To Rumble with School Rumble!"

School Rumble (スクールランブル) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi and serialized in Weekly Shōnen Magazine. The final chapter was released on July 23, 2008, and the 283 chapters were collected in 22 bound volumes by Kodansha. The sequel, School Rumble Z, is published in the monthly Shōnen Magazine Special as well, but the first two chapters (as of late October) have been short, one chapter stories. The series ended in June 2008.

School Rumble has made the transition into other media as well. A 26-episode anime adaptation was broadcast on TV Tokyo between October 2004 and April 2005. In December 2005, a two-part OVA entitled School Rumble: Extra Class was released. Later between April and September 2006 a second season entitled School Rumble - Second Semester was broadcast on TV Tokyo. Finally, another OVA, entitled School Rumble: 3rd Semester was released bundled with volumes 21 and 22 of the Japanese School Rumble manga. Three video games were also produced; Two were released for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) in July 2005 and July 2006 and a PlayStation Portable (PSP) game in 2005. Two light novels written by Hiroko Tokita and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi were published in April 2004 and December 2007 entitled School Rumble: Koi, Shirisomeshi koro ni (スクールランブル～恋、知りそめし頃に～) and School Rumble: Me wa Megalodon no Me (スクールランブル～メはメガロドンのメ～) respectively. In addition, four official guidebooks written and illustrated by Jin Kobayashi for the series has been released: School Rumble: Private File, School Rumble: Official File, School Rumble: Pleasure File and School Rumble: Treasure File.

School Rumble is published in English by Del Rey Manga. Unlike other Del Rey releases, the manga uses the original Japanese naming order (family name followed by the given name) to preserve the puns in the manga. Funimation Entertainment released the first volume and starter box set on August 21, 2007.

"The First day of School..."

Tsukamoto Tenma has long been keeping her love to her schoolmate, Karasumaru, a secret until one day she heard that Karasumaru is going to move within a month. Feeling desperate Tenma tries any possible way to reveal her feelings to Karasumaru, aided by her little sister Yakumo, and fellow classmates.

On the other side, a young delinquent Harima Kenji falls in love to the seemingly innocent Tenma, but all his attempts have been failing at all times. Would Tenma finally realize Kenji's hidden feelings? Would Tenma's burning love reach the cold and flat Karasumaru? School Rumble follows the funny adventures of Tenma and Kenji with their love confession trials, misunderstandings, and laugh-able desperate measures of teen romance.

source: Wikipedia.org and Minitokyo.net (Article)

"Gosho Aoyama : The Number One Detective! (Creator)"

"Gosho Aoyama : The Number One Detective! (Creator)"

Gosho Aoyama is a mangaka who was born June 21, 1963 in Daiei, Tottori Prefecture, Japan. He is most well known as the creator of the manga series Detective Conan (known in the USA, Canada, and the UK as Case Closed).

Aoyama was a genius at drawing even when he was young. When he was in Grade 1 (in elementary school), his painting of "Yukiai War" won a competition and was displayed at the Tottori Daimaru Department Store. He graduated from high school at Ikuei High School. After finishing high school, he studied to Nihon University College of Art in Tokyo. During his university years (winter 1986), Aoyama joined a comic contest for freshmen and won, which was a stepping-stone for his career as a manga artist (mangaka) and author, as well as a turning point for his life.

Aoyama's maiden work was a manga named Chotto Mattete, which was published in the weekly magazine Shonen Sunday on winter 1987. Shortly after that, Magic Kaito was published on the same magazine.

At the beginning of the 90's, another story done by Aoyama named Yaiba was out. This 24-volume manga won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 1993. He won the Shogakukan Manga Award a second time in 2001, for Detective Conan. Other works were released as tankōbon included Third Baseman No.4, Gosho Aoyama's Collection of Short Stories, and Detective Conan.

On May 5, 2005, he married voice actress and singer Minami Takayama, the Japanese voice for Conan of the Detective Conan anime.

source: Conachi Fansite (Article)

"Detective Conan: The Case Will Be Close!"

"Detective Conan: The Case Will Be Close!"

Case Closed, also known as Meitantei Conan (名探偵 コナン, Detective Conan), is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama and is serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday since 1994. The name "Case Closed" for the English language release results from concerns of copyright conflict of the name Detective Conan. As of April 2009, sixty-four volumes have been released in Japan. The story follows the adventures of Jimmy Kudo, a prodigious young detective who was inadvertently transformed into a child due to a poison.

Conan Sketch

Case Closed was adapted into an anime series by the animation studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha, directed by Kenji Kodama and Taiichiro Yamamoto, and is broadcast in Japan on Nippon Television, Yomiuri TV and Animax. The series debuted on January 8, 1996 and has since broadcast 536 episodes as of May 30, 2009. The series has seen high levels of popularity in both manga and anime formats in Japan since its reception, and has also been adapted into twelve Golden Week movies, with the first released on April 17, 1997 and since then followed with a movie released each year. Ten of the movies held a top 10 box office position in the year they were screened. In addition, nine Original video animation have been released.

Case Closed Manga Cover

Viz Media licensed the manga series under the name for English-language publication in North America and released twenty-nine volumes as of April 2009. Funimation Entertainment licensed the anime series for North American broadcast. Both the English adaption went under the name Case Closed. The character names were also adapted into English ones with some names different between the two.The series has been well received in Japan. It has even been used as a mascot to promote citizens to follow the law. Meanwhile, the English adaption has not been as equally popular as in Japan, and has been criticized for the name changes. The show is also very popular in Germany, where it is running at the children's programm block "Pokito" with its original Japanese names and dialogue kept.

"The Case is Open..."

Detective Conan is about a 17 year old boy, Kudo Shinichi 「工藤新一」 who was shrunk into a 7 year old boy by given a specific medicine called the APTX-4869 by a criminal organization. Under Professor Hiroshi Agasa's suggestion he decided to hide his identity and start living at his childhood friend's house, Mouri Ran 「毛利蘭」 whose father is a hopeless private detective. While gathering information about the criminal organization which is known as the B.O he gets through and solves many cases, although his body had shrunk, his brain remains the same.

The Kudos...

There are only a few persons who knows his true identity, those are his parents, Kudo Yuusaku 「工藤優作」 and Kudo Yukiko 「工藤雪子」, his detective mate from Osaka, Hattori Heiji 「服部平次」, his classmate who was also shrunk by taking the APTX-4869, Haibara Ai 「灰原哀」, the world's most wanted thief known as Thief 1412, "Kaitou Kid" and later in the series by a member of the black organization, Vermouth a.k.a Sharon/Chris Vineyard.

One of the Black Organization

Everything is now up to him to track down the black organziation and get his body back...

source: Wikipedia.org, Conachi.com (Article) , Google Image Search (Pictures).

"Takashi Hashiguchi : The Real Owner of Pantasia and St. Pierre..."

Yakitate!! Japan

"Takashi Hashiguchi : The Real Owner of Pantasia and St. Pierre..."

Takashi Hashiguchi (橋口 たかし, born June 2, 1967 in Tokyo) is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his manga series Yakitate!! Japan for which he won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōnen in 2004. Hashiguchi won a newcomer's award in 1987 (published in a magazine), and Combat Teacher debuted the following year in the same magazine.

Takashi Hashiguchi self - portrait. (I can't find true pic of him.)

A prevailing theme seen throughout his manga is the realization of childhood dreams, such as making bread in Yakitate!! Japan or becoming a yo-yo master in Super Yo-Yo (Chousoku Spinner). Hashiguchi mainly focuses on unusual occupations or sports.

He enjoys comedy as well, and took a brief interlude from drawing to try his luck as a comedian.

source: Wikipedia.org (Article and Picture of Takashi Hashigushi) and Yahoo Image Search (Picture).