I have been more excited about this than the Kingdom of Characters display (I had tons of things to complain about that one!) and more so, when I saw this in the Japan Foundation Magazine, back then, they only hide five series on display.

And now they have more!

The Japan Foundation will be holding an exhibit on the art of Japanese comics called “Manga Realities: The Art of Japanese Comics Today.” I am particularly excited about this exhibit as it contains some of my favorite mangaka and more. In Japan Foundation’s July Newsletter, the curator of this exhibit, Takahashi Mizuki of the
Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, noted that the exhibit intends to “recreate, in installation, sound and video, the same feeling of entering a “manga world” that you get when you read in manga…. Manga is experienced in private but this style of exhibition makes it possible to share the experience of manga with family and friends.”

I’m quite excited to see this exhibit and I hope manga fans will enjoy this as well!

Manga Realities Exhibit

Manga Realities: The Art of Japanese Comics Today
Ayala Museum, August 16-October 2

The Japan Foundation and the Ayala Museum in cooperation with the Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito in Japan, will bring to Manila the traveling exhibition, “Manga Realities: Exploring the Art of Japanese Comics Today”.

Ayala Museum is located at Makati Avenue corner de la Rosa St. Greenbelt Park, Makati City. The museum is open from Tuesday to Friday (9:00 am to 6:00 pm) and Saturday to Sunday (10:00 am to 7:00 pm). For more information, please call Ayala Museum at telephone numbers 757.7117 to 21 or visit www.ayalamuseum.org.

And so I round things up, just like before, about the fun things and the good things that I read and played with in 2007. I managed to read a lot of good new manga and reconnected with the old. :3 I did a couple of recommendations for mangacast already so we’ll just stick to the fun titles that I had fun with this year.

This year was all about Moe for me. Moe and otaku culture got me strong this year so pardon mates if these are fan-frenzied choices. :3 Maybe it’s all that toy collecting. Or maybe I’ve been reading Heisei Democracy and Ace too much. :3

Lucky Star. A story about nothing and everything. This totally got my heart ablaze especially with Konata’s Otakon (Otaku Spirit). The humor is simple although you do need some otaku knowledge to get past Konata’s jokes. I cannot stress enough how much i enjoyed watching this and how this has changed my karaoke habits forever. Must I add that I love it so much I preordered the nendoroid konata? Oh yeah. love.

Darker than Black. Bones struck gold with this one for me. It was a good well paced story with enough action to keep the fanboys going. I personally loved Hei’s team and how they stick together to the end. This really isn’t a Moe selection, but Mao’s got enough Moe for all of us. :3

Moyashimon. Bacterias talking and fermenting. I’ve been hooked on fermented items this year so to see the bacterias behind just makes my heart flutter so. I cannot resist Oryzae and for 3 months, I was wishing I had that talent to see them. But sadly I can’t. But thank god for Moyashimon. :3 Love the manga too. The covers rock.

Kekkaishi. I’ve been loving the manga for some while and now that the anime is out, I’m totally hooked every week. I love the story, the kinship between the brothers and the families that nurture and protect them. The story is well paced and I see that there’s no rush to follow to the manga (Oh yeah! No filler arcs… yet.) And if you played the DS game, oh darn it’s wicked!!

Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei. I actually started following Shonen magazine because of this. But yeah, a manic-depressive suicidal teacher and a plethora of lovely students to his call and beckon is worth getting desperate over. I enjoy this series in the sick and twisted humor way.

Lovely Complex. Ah~ High School Manzai Love. <3 <3  Seto no Hanayome. Yakuza mermaids. What more can I ask for? :3
Nodame Cantabile. Because I’m a fangirl.

Gintama. Oi. This came out last year, so why am I pimping it? Because it deserves pimping. yo. And I’m using that as a lame excuse to place this image in my website.

All in all. It was a great year. :3 A very fun year, I might add. :3  There wasn’t enough drama but there was lots of comedies this year. Or maybe I was really just choosing the comedies. :3 I hope next year would be just as fun! I look forward to next year! :3

One of my Christmas wishes this season was reading time in one of my favorite places, Manga Kissa 10. A good friend of mine decided to grant this wish and decided to make Khursten faint again over manga! True enough, just like every time, I’m turn into a happy kid reading through all the stuff inside the Kissa 10.

First, UPDATES! They finally have English-translated manga! Yay! SO PEOPLE! YOU SHOULD GO! There’s now Bleach, Naruto, Fruits Basket, HanaKimi, Midori Days (my recommendation!), Basara (or was that Blame!? ><;; Ah mou~忘れちゃった！) and a lot of others whose names just escape me. The titles are still few compared to their exponentially rising Japanese manga line, but for those who are interested to read some of their favorite mangas in English just request in the small survey sheets found in every table. Again, just like before, you request, and they buy! :3 I’ve had my legion of visit and requests. I usually go there and request a title and true enough, on my next visit, the manga I’m waiting it’s there.

During my last visit, I requested for 20th Century Boys (after noticing that they didn’t have it in their Urasawa Altar!) and, my dang true enough… IT WAS THERE! :3 More than that… IT HAD 21st Century Boys! I swear, I love this store! They even updated their Nodame and they now have Nodame 19! There’s more shoujo manga now too, but they’re the borderline shoujo mangas, the ones wherein guys can still look cool even if they read that shoujo manga (lol, the idea of knowing mangas like this exist is just hilarious for me). Other than Nodame Cantabile and a couple of Moyoco Anno ones, there’s really little josei titles going around. Someday. :3

The great part about the store is that it’s brimming with life. The last time I went, there were rarely any people who went in and out of the cafe. My friend and I were usually the only ones who were there for three hours. Now, most of the chairs are packed (although 90% are still Japanese) and even the shelves are starting to look really shelved. With so much mangas out there, I wonder how the owners would juggle their mangas around.

For example, they added Yuukan Club and Tokimeki Tonight (luffles!) to their line, which are old manga. They also added Liar Game, which is one of the newer titles. Sure, Manga Kissa 10 would love to cater to their frequent readers but time will come when their library would need some major reshuffling or a massive shelving system would be implemented just to cater to these new mangas. So far, the place is still at its comfortable pace and has grown quite well over the past year. I just hope they maintain their readership because the last thing I’d want is to lose perhaps the only place I could physically grab a manga off a shelf.

On a side note, they’ve added a promo point card system (See my オタ魂 burning!!). As you spend more time in Kissa 10, you get some bonus free hours. So, for 10 hours you’ve spent in Kissa 10, you get 1 hour free. For 20 hours, you can get around 3 hours more free. I think this would be easy. Spending for Kissa 10 is always no issue for me. The bigger issue is if I have time for it. -_-;; My December weekends are packed and I wish I had more time to play. -_-;; Or read for that matter. やっぱあたし時間がねぇーHoliday stresses are definitely coming in.

Sometimes I’m such a fangirl that I scare myself. So, I made the Nodame fansite (which I should be updating really soon…). And there is the Nodame pinky:st custom dolls I made. Is it bad to add to the roster and create a room for Chiaki-sama? Mukyaaa! XD

I knew that my Nodame pinky:st fix won’t end with just making the two of them. After making Nodame and Chiaki, I decided on what to do next. I’ve made Chiaki’s orchestra suit. He also has his own casual suit now. Nodame has her mongoose mask, her dress, and her piano bag. And now I made a room.

You can look through the entire photo set in my flickr and see how Chiaki relaxes in his room and Nodame oggling over him and the room. She’s probably nesting now… or something like that. lol. Feel free to comment. Nodame’s gathering ideas on how invade Chiaki’s room.

God. The power of fandom. It pushes you to create things you’d never imagine you’d even create! Two years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined sculpting a Nodame, let alone creating a room for Chiaki!! It’s quite amazing what fandom and your otakon¹ can push you to do. What have you guys done for your fandom?

1. bangin gives a great definition here!

Well, I never had a chance to really read anything interesting lately because I’ve been busy at work and I’m far too exhausted at home to actually grab a manga and start reading. Although, in between watching some television series, my hands got to work — sanding, sculpting, painting, and polishing some customs for my dear fangirling heart. The need to be crafty took me over and in the end, I ended up creating possibly the two and only anime customs I’ll ever do for my collection.

For some while, I’ve been toying with the idea of creating some Nodame customs for my pinky:st dolls. I love Nodame to pieces and Nodame pretty much owns my reading and listening lately — like the past 3 years. lol. And yes, rabid fangirl much, the only series I’m willing to spend quite a lot on… not unless they’re releasing Kaworu Nagisa dolls… or something similar to that. But yeah, my hands likes to get busy and I ended up creating some Nodame stuff.

Nodame was made with the pink dress, piano bag, and mongoose mask. Chiaki, on the other hand came with his long-sleeved polo shirt, a suit, an orchestra suit, and a casual black shirt (that yellow stripe has been stripped!). I’m still asking my friends if they’re willing to give their violin cases. I’ve been tempted to have some toothpicks It was such fun creating it. Chiaki’s by far the hardest due to his hair and his face. lol. Before it was painted I was thinking “He reminds me of Cloud.” But I guess it all sorted out in the end. I have the kind face Chiaki and here’s the snarky faced Chiaki. lol. I KNOW! I feel like a rabid fangirl, but it’s true! Nothing beats having to play with your own Nodame and Chiaki. Mukyaa! <3

Perhaps the final straw of my Nodame fangirling was my weekend project. Actually I started this 6 months ago when I didn’t have a sewing machine yet. I was trying to handstitch Nodame’s bag. However, as I had to stitch larger pieces, it become more taxing. So I stopped until I managed to save some money for it. And well, yeah. The piano bag. Fixed and made, although on the wrong cloth, but still fixed for enjoyment.

Yes. My fandom and my hobby owns me. If this ‘crafty’ bug keeps up, as my friends bet, I might start making own Masumi already. lol. I hope not! Although I don’t mind!! XDD In the meantime, enjoy the other images I have of my Nodame customs. God, being a fangirl can be scary much. lol.