It breaks my heart to share this news but as with everything, all good things come to an end. One of my favorite shoujo mangas, Ouran High School Host club, is coming to an end this coming September 24, on the 11th issue of Lala Magazine. The 10th issue this month also comes with a climax drama CD.

Well, compared to other shoujo mangas, I honestly like the direction of the last few volumes. It has been amazing so far and a wonderful happy wrap-up, fitting to such lovely lovely characters.

I suppose I’ll try to get a copy of this issue. Or maybe I can just try to buy the last volume as well. Either way, I’m excited. I have so much love for Tono and the rest of the host club!

Every year, I do a little list of the fun things I’ve read and seen during the year. And in the spirit of doing lists, I thought I’d make a list of all the things that made my hobby go further down the drain this year. These are anime and mangas I’ve read throughout the year which have made an impact in my life and will definitely be my ruin for the next few years until their series finish. lol. So, let’s look how this dear otaku’s life went down the drain this year. ;A; Drat.

Let’s start this the way the year started.

Gintama. Anime season kicked in for me when Gintama started. I’ve read Gintama before but I never managed last out with the puns since I can’t understand most of them. But they were funny nonetheless, especially with all the lunatics abound. Gintama’s ragtag yorozuya crew, their odd jobs, failed logic, and hilarious drama sketches kept me going for a lot of weeks since the anime started this spring. Gintama was my first serialized ‘raw’ experience. lol. What I mean by ‘raw’ experience is because no one is subbing it, I had to watch it week by week raw. Which is good since I’ve managed to let go of my dependence on subs. Aaaah~ Gintama. Thank you for reviving my love ofr Jump animes. <3 <3 Even if you guys had filler episodes, it’s okay, since your entire series is like a filler episode anyway. lol.

Ouran Koukou Host Club. Baby your my love!! So cute. I squeed in cuteness every Tuesday since I had to catch both Gintama and Ouran. XDD And this series was a fitting animation for the lovely Ouran tale. <3 <3 Although the ending is a bit different, in the end, it’s still about the squeeing and the fangirling and the MOE moments.The anime was also has a sawayaka (refreshing) appeal compared to the manga. I’ve read the manga before but stopped because Hatori Bisco’s art just gives me headaches. Seriously, her paneling and details explode in the pages. Albeit funny, I thought that this is not for me. ><;; I’ll leave that to those who painstakingly read them every month. I have to give her credit to her story. She’s got a great story in her hands, and I hope this series keeps up its insane humor!

NHK ni Yokoso. ???????????????????????????????????????????(????????????)???????????????????????????????????? !!!!!!??????Here’s NHK. One of my most favorite otaku mangas being translated into anime by… gonzo. If this weren’t one of my more favorite mangas this year, I really wouldn’t bother. Gonzo’s rendition of NHK destroyed the high energy that the manga had. The anime became more laidback than it were obsessive. But later on, I realized that they did this to stress the hikkikomori lifestyle of Satou – how painfully slow and solitary these days go. I must give dibs to Pearl Kyoudai for making great songs as BG for the series. That at least brought more life to the series. On the animation end, well… what do you expect. It was made by gonzo.

Mushishi. Ahhh. Mushishi. I have no qualms about this series. It’s well animated and the story is held together by the mystique of Ginko and his invisible friends. This could have outrightly won as the best thing I’ve laid my eyes on this year, but no… not even Ginko’s mushishi world could sway me to what was coming next. It was great, nonetheless. Great animation. Great story telling. Great premise. Great anime.

Nodame Cantabile (drama). mukyaaaaa!! (????????????) I can watch this series over and over again and be grateful for the great casting call on this great great manga. The story takes a slightly different turn in the drama, with the actors trying to push the characters further. I would say, they all played the “what if” card. “What if Chiaki managed to show his emotions?” could have been something that Tamaki Hiroshi thought of when he tried to put on a Chiaki mask. At first it felt weird, but in the end, it turned out quite great. Of course, we can’t forget Ueno Juri who was simply Nodame. She breathed Nodame’s character that she made it her own. The end result between these two talents (along with other set of loony actors) made a great drama adaptation of my favorite josei manga. <3 <3 Hard critic as I am with series that are personal to me, I think this is one of the better manga to drama adaptations out there. So catch it!!

Other series that caught my eye this year was Death Note. I would have chosen Death Note if I didn’t like the manga’s outcome so much. But the animation to this manga is, without a doubt, superior! But I just really hate the ending. I suck. ><;; OTL. The next one is Black Lagoon, which I really really love but I didn’t love it enough to check it out. Black Lagoon’s thrilled has died out with all the intense action animes I’ve seen in my life. We’ve seen chicks gun it out before. What else is new? I have yet to wait how Katekyo Hitman Reborn fleshes out as well. It looks promising. I enjoyed the manga a lot hopefully, it doesn’t fall the same fate as its bigger brothers, Bleach and Naruto. Boooo… Pumpkin Scissors is also a promising series. I hope these series pull it off next year.

Now that we got into speaking about next year, it’s great to look on things to look forward to next year! Well, there’s the Nodame Anime coming out to start the year so that’s something to look forward to. I’m not really the type to hunt for Japanese anime since I prefer reading mangas over them. But this year, quite a lot of what I love in manga came out on the TV so it can’t be helped.

I hope next year’s a great year for animation and manga!! Let’s hope for better year people!!

(*^???^)/??????:*:??????HAPPY NEW YEAR???:*:?????????(^???^*)