Oh Ho Ho! Happy New Year!

I've been crazy busy and running in circles for the past few weeks working retail funland (temp job at the mall) and snagging another temp job that begins on Tuesday next week.
Another year to attempt to get caught up on animu and kdramas! May the cycle never end! :D

First anime I watched in the New Year was Azumanga Daoih. I started to do a lil marathon of it the last week of December and finished the last few eps today. Since I graduated not too long ago, this past May, re-watching the ending made me feel a tad bit nostalgic for what it was like to finish one path and begin anew.


Have my Netflix on hold for a few more weeks since I'll be working the both jobs til my retail one ends the 3rd week of January aka not much time for anime or dramas. I'm hoping to finish watching Emma: A Victorian Romance - Season 2 , Nabari No Ou: Complete Series, Part 2, and a few other older series that I have had on my watch list for too long. With Crunchyroll having a channel on the Roku player I don't see myself keeping my Netflix after I finish up a few older series that aren't available to watch online.

Baby & Me vol 1

This series has been on my tbr pile for far too long so this month I decided to pick it up while I can still get my hands on it (series run ended and Viz published the last volume already.) The aspect I love about starting a series that is already fully published is that I don't have to wait months for the next volume to be released, and often times you can find used volumes cheap online.
I enjoyed this first volume and will admit to tearing up after reading only the first chapter! I wasn't expecting it to be pulling at the reader's heartstrings right away but it does pull you into the story and keeps you til the end. I'm interested in how this series will progress over 18 volumes. I plan on trying to see if I can snag some editions off Paperbackswap or used via Amazon, not a series that seems to have a high re-read value so I'll be swapping them as I read them.

Watch I'm Watching This November

Other than a few simulcasts via Crunchyroll this month I plan on finally getting around to watching Emma: A Victorian Romance.
I've already watched the first two discs of season 1, that I am renting via Netflix, and the series is slowly picking up the pace enough for me to hold my interest long enough. I loved taking British Victorian Writers in college so naturally I wanted to check this anime out. The first episode didn't impress me much at all and I even considered dropping it, but I kept on watching before making a final judgment.The plot of Emma focuses more on the social undertones of the time period rather than a typical love story. Partially because of the time period and setting I'm interested in finishing up the first season this month, maybe I'll even get to the 2nd season before December.
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What I've Been Reading 2010 Update

I've been getting caught up with reading the volumes I have of series I wanted to read this year, except for Bleach. It's not as if I am intimidated on beginning a seemingly never ending shonen series, where Bleach, Vol. 31 was just released this week. When I start an older series, or one that have several volumes out already, I like to collect a few first before I dive into it. I've been mainly collecting Bleach from sites like Paperbackswap which my wallet has been really thankful for.
Normally I like to read a series before diving into the anime but since it's not something I usually would pick up I didn't mind watching the anime first, except for Season 4 which I hope to soon forget.

I've also been going through the piles of unread manga I have at home and have been trying to keep them under control. If something doesn't have a high re-read value for me I've been posting them on PBS or Bookmooch to free up shelf space.

Other than Black Butler and Happy Cafe there are not many new series that I've picked up in 2010. I've been mainly getting new releases from series that started before 2010 and filling in the gaps for missing volumes for series that run has ended.

Pucker Up

Kdrama: Pink Lipstick

Yoo Ga Eun is a caring woman who is married to Park Jung Woo. Little did she realize that her best friend Mi Ran is not only having an affair with her husband but that her adopted daughter, Jung Woo, is Mi Ran and Park Jung Woo's love child!

Most of the dramas that I watch are ones that air weekly but I was curious to check out a daily drama. The first episode starts off in current day with Yoo Ga Eun realizing how her husband and best friend have been betraying her for years unbeknown to her. After this shocking discovery the series turns the clock and goes straight to the very beginning, with Yoo Ga Eun dating Park Jung Woo, showing the viewer where it all began.

At first I was a little annoyed with the background episodes since I really wanted to see Yoo Ga Eun take her revenge on her cheating husband and horrible friend. But after watching a few episodes my interest started to peak, especially around episode ten with the twist in plot. Crunchyroll currently has the first 12 episodes now available for all members to view. I honestly did not hear about the series til Crunchyroll rolled out the announcement for it. I was hesitant to start such a long series, still currently airing, but I thought of the seemingly never ending shonen series that I've watched (or ones that I am still keeping up with) and figured why not. It's not like I already have a huge list of anime and dramas that I want to someday watch ;)

Now I'm patiently waiting for the next episodes to be uploaded on CR. And by patiently I mean I've been checking their site daily to see if more were added yet.