[manga] Othello

By: Satomi Ikezawa

OTHELLO! First manga review. Because I re-read it all in one day. I love this manga. Even if it is kinda weird; it's hilarious, it pisses you off, and you get involved.. goddamit it even makes you cry. That my friend, is freaking Shōjo material. The manga is named after that boardgame "Othello" because of the main character switching back and forth.

The plot follows Yaya Higuchi, a pushover kind of girl with only an alternative personality to keep her safe that she doesn't know the existence of. Her alternative personality is Nana, the outgoing girl with spice and confidence. Both of them share the same dream, to sing. It's Yaya and Nana, against the world that needs a balance of both, a sweet heart, and a confident heart.

Othello really brings out the crude side to life. Liars, fakes, rapist bastards--you name it. It's amazing. This manga is realy touching. And honestly, the style doesn't bug me; In fact, I love it. I love the drama, the style, the fashion, and the lyrics. Some parts seemed rushed but hey im no manga artist.

I'm deep in love with the ending.

Beautiful :). I loved this whole manga. I loved it. AND I LOVE SHOHEI-SAN'S ALLIGATORR!!!♥

well I shouldn't say much. Give this a read. It's really amazing. Short too. Only 28 chapters wow!

It's cute :). Read it. Go.

Mark: 10/10

[fiction] The Missing Girl

By: Norma Fox Mazer

"He could be any respectable ordinary man, but he's not"

I could barely finish this book, but the hope for a happy ending got me going. It's a--beautiful story in a sense because of it's foreshadowing and such. But I'll let you find out for yourself.

The Missing Girl is about five sisters, that without knowing about it are driving a man crazy, his forbidden thoughts about them, his "love" for them. He thinks he's a nice man, he's always been told that. Then one day, when one of the sisters, Stevie had to be sent to New Hamsphire to work for the money that this family desperately needs, everyone is upset. Which leads one of the sisters, Autumn to take a walk and then be captured by her invisible predator.

I won't tell you how it ended because that was so big. The man died, in a way that was already mentioned in the book actually. Foreshadowing! Amazing shit. The girls have their own honest voices. Which honestly, me being as young as I am; I didn't really give into.

but apparently when your 11 you're in grade 5? I wasn't. haha.

Anyways, it was still real. I fell in love with Beauty, Fancy, Stevie and maybe also Mim, becayse they're the ones that are most like me. And through it all, Norma Fox Mazer couldn't have described it any better.

Goodjob :D.

Mark: 10/10

[news] New Books

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We've got new books! ^.^;;. Most of them are new. Last minute 2008ers? haha. Alright.. let's start the list up:

Love & Lies by Ellen Wittlinger

A lesbian girl, 18, with much confidence in herself meets with complications in her times studying in university.

The Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer

From what I see, it's a horrifying book about a child predator. There's a new one eh?

Black box by Julie Schumacher

A book about a sister with depression and how the sibling has to take all the pain in but away from the rest of the world. Struggles. Kind of reminds me of Skin and maybe a touch of Would you. But you never know.

Me Times Three by Alex Witchel

The only book not from this year; but it seems pretty interesting. A book about a heartbreak and cheating. Struggles happen?

I Know It's Over by C.K. Kelly Martin

A DEBUT!♥ lol. I'm looking forward to this. seems to have a lot of drama in it. :). Gotta love that drama.

Looks like we might have a bit of everything with this set. Take care everyone~

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[fiction] Would you

By: Marthe Jocelyn

Would you is a kind of slice-of-life book. Life isn't all serious, all sad, it's funny, it's weird.. it's dramatic and honestly; it has no end unless life itself ends. So the ending of this book -- may not be those weird award winning powerful ones, but honestly anything else would make this book a little indifferent. I loved how it was real. Most of all I'm loving how the cover relates to what our main character Nat realizes in the end.

Published in 2008! Yay. Even if the year is coming to an end haha.

Anyways, this book is about a girl named Nat overcoming an accident her sister, Claire was caught up in and because of it; we see how it affects her. (Ah not to worry there's much more drama caught up in there).

I loved how the book was seperated in days, showing how quickly life can suddenly be ruined and changed-- how flexible but fragile life is. I liked how the philosophy with hope being pointless and such at the end was there. It was a nice touch. Also; the well titled maybe a little personally reflective titles of the little sections made you cry, made you laugh, made you just smile and say "haha Nat you dummy.". Remember, it was slice-of-life. So of course it affected me a little.

:). I love realism. It's the beauty in writing. Even in fantasy realism is there. Because without some charecteristic or even a love interest thing; we can't really relate to what's going on. Maybe it's why we always believe that our favourite alien extraterrstrials .. ah nvm lmao.

I read this to sleep too.

Mark: 9.5/10

Now it got a 9.5 because honestly. it was awesome. But not awesome enough :(. Sorry Marthe lol.

[jmovie] Udon

"There's nothing here. Just udon."

Kosuke Matsui tries to escape his homeland in the Kagawa Perfecture which he believes is filled with nothing but Udon. He's sick of it, and so he moves to New York to fulfill his dreams of becoming a comedian. It doesn't work too well for him, and when he decides to come back; he sees nothing's changed at all.

Everyone is the same and the Udon is still there. With a big debt, and anger from his father, Kosuke tries to make money by joining a local publishing company. He meets a girl; Kyoko and together they bring up to write an article about Udon. Surprisingly to Kosuke it's a big hit. Somehow, it changes everything.

I, like most people; watched this movie on an airplane (along with that movie ROUGH I think?). I really loved it, it was hilarious, it made me hungry, and it made me cry. A nice balance, a well thought lesson, and really good actors.

I loved the ending; somehow it kind of reminded me of "The Outsiders" ending because well Kyoke was writing a story right? I thought that was really cool.

"It's a love story." That's what Kyoko said. Which says a lot. I loved how the glorified udon like if you did it wrong it wouldn't be right, which is probably true; but it's great how they did it. When Kosuke's father died, I think the scene was very dramatic; Well done actually. And the memories, and how the kids were happy when they were given the father's udon.

It was good, realy good. I watch it when I'm sad now (lol). :).

Mark: 10/10

Cast

Yusuke Santamaria - Kosuke Matsui

Manami Konishi - Kyoko Miyagawa

Tortoise Matsumoto - Shosuke Suzuki

Katsumi Kiba - Takutomi Matsui

Kyoka Suzuki - Mari Fujimoto

Takeshi Masu - Masanori Otani

Jin Katagiri - Kenjiro Mishima

Jun Kaname - Kazuya Aoki

Fumiyo Kohinata - Ryoichi Fujimoto

[fiction] Baby Proof

By: Emily Giffin

This book had a nice concept. But honestly, I thought the ending was rushed. I knew it would work out but--the way it was done was a little lame. Other than that, I absolutely loved it :).

The plot follows Claudia, a grown over 30 woman who is set up on a blind-date with a man named Ben. The both of them aren't intereseted in having children. But things happen, and eventually; one of them changes their mind. But the other stays strong in their arguement for not having children. Eventually a divorce happens. The book shows us that love can work wonders.

It was nice, I mean now i know 30 year old's aren't like old geezers :9. haha. I'm jking. It's nice though, I could actually reflect with somethings in the book, like the moment when everything is wrong but you keep telling yourself it's happening for the best? I mean I'm sure we all do it at some point. Even if it isn't. Everything was nice and realistic. However, even if the ending was as real as could be... I thought it was a little rushed. It was way too weird. Too rushed.

Either way, the book won it's way into my bedtime stories. I'd crawl into bed and read a chapter of this; lots of fun actually. At first I thoguht the concept was new but then I realized, I'd actually read a lot of books with this; (The Last Chinese Chef for instance) but as soon as the issue is singled out it seems so strange.

Now, I'm pretty old-fashioned (influenced by my parents) and I honestly think that having children is good but when you see it like this and you're always asking what made it so strong; I'm just glad Emily gave some reasons that I could beleive. I also liked how nothign was perfect. The writing style was great, and flowing. Sometimes it was very comical and I was laughing. So this book is great :). Even if the ending seemed a little rushed over all, it was great.

The last sentence; despite the way it ended, was pretty affective as well. A good one-liner to end the book haha. Works like a charm right?

Mark: 6/10