![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
umechanIncoherence ahoy! - this is what happens when I keep putting off updating the lj and the pile of stuff I want to mention gets larger and larger.
Naisho has released ep3 of Gakuen Alice now. Go Get! I promise the storyline gets better and a bit darker as it progresses. So while it seems all fluff and cuteness (with a side helping of weird) now, the storyline should be picking up soon. So far the anime has kept to the spirit of the show even if there have been a number of differences between the manga and the anime in the later episodes. It worries me a bit how they're going to end it though, since there is a lot of stuff that is as of yet unresolved in the manga, and the a bunch of the loose threads/foreshadowing comes up early in the series, and has also been showing up in the anime.
Luca's visiting the animals (and subsequent personality/facial changes XD;;) and his dance with Giant Piyo were as wonderful animated as I thought it would be. XD;; You've got to love the blushing, sparkly eyed pigs, cows, horses, chickens, etc. XD;; Mr Bear is cuter in the manga, but still wonderful to see him animated. <3 The bit after Mikan negates Natsumes' powerful fire attack and Hotaru is walking swiftly towards Mikan is just adorable. Not running with her arms out to hug, but just swiftly and a bit stiffly. Very adorably Hotaru. :D
They pounded you over the head a little more with the fact that you're not supposed to have any contact with outsiders in the anime, but I guess that's okay.
ShikamaruTsubasa-sempai shows up! yay! They also introduce Nodachi early, although I don't think that makes much of a difference. I really like the embellishments they're adding in the anime to make the school seem more colorful. Actually showing some of the examples of the different Alices is good. And the whole bit with showing the differences between the star levels is pretty hilarious too. XD;
uh, not sure if you'll see this here, but questions about Gakuen Alice in one of the previous posts? Not sure if you've already had your questions answered somewhere else, but here's my attempt. Oh an here's another disclaimer - I don't really know japanese, and I can't translate, so there's bound to be mistakes, etc.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
amatsuki">
1. Why doesn't Noda sensei ever open his eyes? Who exactly is he anyway?
I think that's just the way he's drawn - kind of like Bunta from Initial D, if you've seen that. He's the teacher in charge of the Special Alices' section/group that Mikan's in. If you're following the raw, they actually introduce him ep 6, which is earlier than they did in the manga. In case you didn't know ^^;; There are 5 different section/groups:
- people who have your typical ESP type alices, things like teleportation, prediction of the future, seeing through walls, etc.
- people who have alices related to creating things, or helpful towards research, etc. For instance people whose drawings or stuffed toys come to life (like the person who made Mr Bear), people who can create food/potions with strange powers/side effects, etc
- people whose alices are related to their physical body, like all the pheromone people (Narumi and Luca) or people who can walk super fast, change the shape of their faces, etc.
- the special alice group - all the leftover people with odd or strange alices which don't fit into the other groups. examples are like Mikan's self protecting/negation thing, people who can make their souls come out of their bodies and afix them to other objects,kage no bunshindoppelgangers, etc.
- people with dangerous alices (like Natsume) - this group is pretty mysterious and is led by Persona
2. What was the 'Aladdin and the Magic Lamp' thing Mikan and co did? This is what the Special Alice group did for the Alice School/Academy's cultural festival. It was a kind of RPG-ish game with different levels covered by different members of the Special Alice group. The person who wins and makes it through the RPG gets to pick a lantern which allows them to get 3 wishes within a week, from the person whose lantern they picked.
3. Why did they choose a male to play female lead and vice versa for the play?
I'm not sure - I think maybe they just thought it would be cute? or very fitting for the play? At first the prince wasn't supposed to be Mikan - it was supposed to be that girl (whose name I've forgotten) who had pheromone powers to attract other girls. :P And I think they wanted Luca in the part of snow white because of the whole animal thing (which BTW, is just adorable)
4. At one point, someone (I think Narumi?) is thinking something about some sort of unknown strength protecting Mikan. 'Itsuka kanojo o mamoru chikara ni naru.' That's correct right? What's he talking about? I think he's talking about her alice right? The one that protects her from other people's alices by negating them.
Sorry for bombarding you with all these questions! #_# I hope you don't mind answering them... - No problem. I'm just slow at answering. Hope you don't mind ^^;
As a random thing, did you notice how amazingly short Natsume's eyebrows are? I never noticed it till my friend (yay, I got one friend into Gakuen Alice!) pointed it out to me. Yamaneko!Natsume is adorable. XD
- yeah, I didn't notice either until you pointed it out. ^^;; I think it's easier to make him look mad/disgruntled most of the time that way... maybe?
- Things like the fact that Mikan is adopted, and is somehow related to the girl from Narumi-sensei's generation who also had the power to negate other people's alices to protect herself. I'm assuming Mikan's probably her daughter. ...I am dying to read/find out the backstory on this and to see Narumi-sensei and Co during this period when younger.
- The whole Z thing just needs to be explained more. Along with more explanations and backstory on the spies within the school.
- What's Narumi-sensei's plan for Mikan (why she's important, etc.) this is of course related to the first thing I mentioned.
- More info on the purpose/goals of both the school and Z, etc.
- More info on the special forces group (ok, I know it's not really called that, I just can't think of what it is at the moment) that has all the dangerous alices in it - the one led by Persona.
- and while we're at it, more info on Persona would be nice too.
- The whole thing where some Alices are harmful to their owner's health, especially if overused, can suck away at their lives. Like Natsume's.
- More info on Mikan's alice which is probably tied into 1 and 3.
- More info on why Natsume killed off a whole village, or the backstory on him/his alice and Luca, etc.
I picked up my vol 6 Gakuen Alice manga a few weeks ago so no I finally have no gaps in the storyline! <3 In case anyone's interested in what happens.. that's you anon! (unless you've already had your questions answered)
BTW, random but I love the 15 yr old versions that Higuchi-sensei is doing in the tankoubon. So the previous volume ends with the backstory on Mr. Bear and the student who made him, Sonoo Kaname. And towards the last few pages we see that Natsume is taking medicine, likely for the side effects/wearing out of his body that using his alice causes. ;__; Vol. 6 starts with Iincho has won the Excellent student award - the one that Hotaru was aiming for at the beginning of the series. And so he gets to go back to his hometown for a week. In the meantime there's news of people outside of the school who have been losing their Alice ablilties for unknown reasons. We also meet Tonouchi Akira (Tono-sempai) whose alice is the ability to strengthen other people's alices. On the way back to the school Iincho runs across some (highly suspicious) lady, and when he gets back to the school they realize that he can't use his alice anymore. It seems to have disappeared. Eventually they figure out that the alice disappearance incidents are likely related to the Z group - one of the members alice is probably the ability to steal other people's alices. Theres also some more stuff to progress the triangle relationship between luca, natsume, and mikan. Because Natsume had been avoiding Mikan after Persona kind of threatens him in the previous volume. And so Mikan asks why and he answeres because he hates her. But we see via Luca's memories that when Natsume says he hates something... it doesn't necessarily mean he hates it. Let me know if you want me to elaborate... I'm really trying to make this short (and failing horribly x_X)
That right about where they find out that someone from Z has snuck their way into the academy/school. Instead of staying put the way they're told, Hotaru and Mikan go looking for the Z members to see who it was that stole Iincho's alice. There's some really cute Iincho, Mikan, and Hotaru scenes in the volume. uh, not in the romantic sense. Anyways, of course Mikan and Hotaru get found/seen by the Z members and right when their about to steal Mikan's alice, the school's police? guards? come and the two of them are caught in the crossfire. Hotaru pushes Mikan out of the way to save her, but ends up getting shot herself. The bullet didn't cause any life threatening damage, but there was a virus within the bullet and the school doesn't know what it is yet, etc. Traumatized Mikan blames herself and there are some really sweet Mikan and Hotaru sections/scenes in this. Especially where Hotaru is trying to comfort Mikan - especially because we (and Mikan) know that Hotaru is really scared and hurting herself, and yet she wants to comfort and take care of Mikan, etc. Anyways, we get some pretty cute Luca and Mikan scenes here too. And Natsume watching from a window above as Luca tries to comfort Mikan.
Anyways, so after talking to Tono-sempai, etc it seems the way Z might have entered is that through the rumored hidden tunnel in the High school area. Mikan wants to use the tunnel to chase after Z. In the meantime, Natsume overhears the sensei-tachi talking. At first about how the principal won't allow Hotaru's parents to visit her. And the something about Mikan which we don't get to hear even though he does. ARG! >_<;;; Likely about who she is - how she's related to "that girl" (...like I said before, which girl? ...I don't know. *sob*) And then Jinno-sensei warns Narumi-sensei to watch out for himself, because the principal has noticed his recent actions, etc. Oh right, and somewhere around here is where we first meet Penguin <3 the robot made by Hotaru who was returned to her because it missed her so much it cried all the time at it's new owner's place. XD; This is also the bit where Hotaru asks Natsume what he's doing here (in the hospital in front of her room) instead of with Mikan and Co. - because that's the place where he should be.
Anyways, so back to Mikan who's determined to use the tunnel and go after Z to capture them, get the antidote for Hotaru, and get Iincho's alice back. While they're all discussing this (mainly people are telling Mikan it's a ridiculous idea) Luca remember how Mikan was talking about feeling useless, wanting to have the ability to help/do something, and he relates this to what Natsume once told him about wanting to become more powerful/grow up soon. And so he comes out and says he'll help Mikan. ...which of course surprises everyone. Natsume soon follows after that. Anyways, eventually pretty much everyone agrees to help in some way. But Tono doesn't really know exactly where the tunnel is, and the High school section is off limits to the Gradeschoolers.
It's at this point that Penguin hands over a purse full of Gariba (Gulliver?) candies to Mikan. The have things written on them like up 4, down 2, etc. Anyways, they're from Hotaru and will allow you to temporarily age up or down after eating the candy. They have the classmates, etc help out to cover up for them while they're away. Oh I think I forgot to mention that Natsume and the other dangerous ablilites/secret sect people were called earlier to get orders to carry out some mission earlier, but Natsume says he's going to ignore it/brush it off. I'd assume the orders would have had something to do with Z anyhow? Anyways, so off they go into the High school section. OMG. The three of them aged up to 15 yrs old. XD <3 :D *__* Although, I personally think Mikan would look cuter if she took out the ponytails. But I guess they must keep them there for consistency. ;__; Oh I forgot to mention - so the group going is Mikan, Luca, Natsume, and Tsubasa, with Tono-sempai leadin the way into the High School area - since he's a high schooler and they're going to go talk to someone who may have more info on the secret tunnel. Anyways once they're there they run into some trouble when Mikan's ageing up effect has started to wear off and she and Luca step into a trap somewhere along the way. And they finally end up in the News club/group where Hayami the club captain has more info for them. It's likely in this spot where supposedly lots of ghosts appear - usually in a pair. ...but one of the ghosts is the spliting image of one of the students at the academy (in actuality they're not ghosts) - one of the school representatives - Sakurano Shuuichi. (which we met briefly in one of the earlier volumes).
And that's it for vol 6. *pantpant* ^^;;;
So the reason I've been neglecting the manga and anime, is because there's been a sudden influx of fangirly/fannish games over here. I up and bought Tokimeki Girl's side, because it's cheap now ($20-$25) and it finally arrived a few weeks ago, and then the sibling's (Oh so much love!) christmas present just arrived the other day and it's the PS2 version of Meine Liebe. I haven't actually watched more than the first ep of Meine Liebe. And I haven't played the Meine Liebe GBA rom that's been floating around since I wanted to wait and buy the fully voiced version.
So anyways, I finished my first playthrough of Tokimeki. In which I sucked. hard. T_T I got the ending with the Tsukushi, the little brother. x_X I didn't even meet all the characters available. T___T I only ran into ...I am dying to get Chiharu - who I'm assuming is the blue haired guy you keep running into at the mall who has that terribly accented japanese? <3 ... I must needs to get him! So far the only people I ran into during the 1st playthrough was Hazuki Kei (comes standard I imagine), Morumura Sakuya, Mihara Shiki, and Himuro-sensei. work harder at this. ^^;; I need to collect them all!! So I can unlock the freetalks! Oh be still my fangirl heart. XD;
As much as I like Yamaguchi Kappei's voice, I just cannot get behind going for Hibiya Wataru. ...Because he reminds me of Horio, which is all sorts of wrong. x_X I don't much care for Morimura Sakuya either, although I was aiming for him out of the people I was able to meet. To tell you the truth, I don't much care for any of the characters so far. ^^;; Except for Chiharu. :P~ And a plus - he's voiced by Shou-chan. I'm pretty sure it's him.. and he's listed as ??? character in the game pamphlet, which Chiharu isn't listed in. It does make me chortle that Wataru-kun likes to watch anime, and Morimura-kun likes video games though.
... I want someone to make a love sim with the mentally imbalanced, power/strength crazed vilian character sterotype. Like Hisoka or Akabane.Please come traumatize me <3 Preferably which uses Hiroki's Hisoka voice.
Anyways other than that, I just started Meine Liebe and if it weren't enough that Seki-san was voicing Ludwig w/ that awesome voice. He sparkles like nothing I've seen before. WTFLOL! There's seriously a whole shiny outline and sparkles everywhere when he shows up. XD XD XD ... and there's even a chime/harp thing that goes off every time he says something. LOL. Does this happen for every character eventually or is it just Ludwig? How could I not like a character like this? So far, he's the only person who will go with me to Stonehenge. :P
Other than that, the PoT: Rush and Dream is already out, but I've pretty much lost all interest in PoT, and I've still yet to get Kabaji on S&T2. It's funny - while I have really no desire to read/watch PoT, playing the game is still fun. I'm not really sure why. Also in case anyone else out there didn't already know, the Gakuen Alice GBA game has been out for a while now. While I would love to play mary sue. (whose alice is the ability to predict weather? ...okay. XD;;) It looks fun and sim-ish. And the pet system looks pretty cute too. The funds are low at the moment, and grah $45 for a GBA game? ...I really wish they'd up the price to $60-$65 and make it a PS2 game, because then I'd have no doubts about whether or not I'd get it.
Other than that, it looks like there are voice clips on the Haruka3 site now in the character section. I've not heard Naokun use a sexy voice before. (!) But he sounds pretty good there, and much love for his character's character design. But, whoa. Hoshi-kun's voice is so very low. o__O It almost doesn't seem to match the character design. ...I abhor the Ishida-kun's character's character design. wah. All I can think is that he stepped right out of Mortal Kombat. >_<; There's small pics for who I assume are the Oni, but no character profiles or voice clips yet.
Not sure if either of you will see this here, but![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-syndicated.gif)
worldserpent or kakoten Do either of you know if there's a big difference between the Taiwan and HK versions of Ravages of Time? ... and which versions did you end up picking up?
eikitty - ignore everything else and look here!
Ingredients:
Eggplants - I usually use 1-2 asian eggplants (you know the long thin purple ones)
ground or cubed pork (you can also used ground turkey, although I think it tastes better with pork) - I usually use about a 1 to 2 handfuls (uh, sorry about the crappy measurements)
small handful of asian salted black beans (you should be able to buy this from your local asian grocery store)
seasonings:
garlic - a few cloves smashed and then minced.
ginger - a thin slice minced
lots of corn starch (3 or 4 large heaping spoonfuls)
a sprinkle of hot pepper flakes
dash of soysauce
dash of rice wine
a couple drops of sesame oil
drizzle of olive oil or whatever cooking oil you use
salt to taste
Optional (although I usually don't add this) - dried cured/salted orange peel (I don't how else to call this ^^;;)
Wash your black beans a bit (doesn't need to be too thorough) add the garlic, ginger, soysauce, rice wine, olive oil, and sesame oil to it. Mash it up into a paste.
take the paste and mix it into your meat. Add cornstarch and mix again. Let sit while you chop your eggplant in the rolling fashion - where you cut on a diagonal, roll it a little and the cut again. (really, you can cut it however you want.. I just like it this way).
when you're done chopping add the eggplant to the mix and then salt the whole thing lightly. If you have time, you can let it marinate at this point. Otherwise, steam the whole thing until it's done. It shouldn't take that long, maybe 10 minutes or so? Be sure to mix it again when it comes out of the steamer. Spoon over rice or some other starchy side.
Naisho has released ep3 of Gakuen Alice now. Go Get! I promise the storyline gets better and a bit darker as it progresses. So while it seems all fluff and cuteness (with a side helping of weird) now, the storyline should be picking up soon. So far the anime has kept to the spirit of the show even if there have been a number of differences between the manga and the anime in the later episodes. It worries me a bit how they're going to end it though, since there is a lot of stuff that is as of yet unresolved in the manga, and the a bunch of the loose threads/foreshadowing comes up early in the series, and has also been showing up in the anime.
Luca's visiting the animals (and subsequent personality/facial changes XD;;) and his dance with Giant Piyo were as wonderful animated as I thought it would be. XD;; You've got to love the blushing, sparkly eyed pigs, cows, horses, chickens, etc. XD;; Mr Bear is cuter in the manga, but still wonderful to see him animated. <3 The bit after Mikan negates Natsumes' powerful fire attack and Hotaru is walking swiftly towards Mikan is just adorable. Not running with her arms out to hug, but just swiftly and a bit stiffly. Very adorably Hotaru. :D
They pounded you over the head a little more with the fact that you're not supposed to have any contact with outsiders in the anime, but I guess that's okay.
uh, not sure if you'll see this here, but questions about Gakuen Alice in one of the previous posts? Not sure if you've already had your questions answered somewhere else, but here's my attempt. Oh an here's another disclaimer - I don't really know japanese, and I can't translate, so there's bound to be mistakes, etc.
amatsuki">1. Why doesn't Noda sensei ever open his eyes? Who exactly is he anyway?
I think that's just the way he's drawn - kind of like Bunta from Initial D, if you've seen that. He's the teacher in charge of the Special Alices' section/group that Mikan's in. If you're following the raw, they actually introduce him ep 6, which is earlier than they did in the manga. In case you didn't know ^^;; There are 5 different section/groups:
- people who have your typical ESP type alices, things like teleportation, prediction of the future, seeing through walls, etc.
- people who have alices related to creating things, or helpful towards research, etc. For instance people whose drawings or stuffed toys come to life (like the person who made Mr Bear), people who can create food/potions with strange powers/side effects, etc
- people whose alices are related to their physical body, like all the pheromone people (Narumi and Luca) or people who can walk super fast, change the shape of their faces, etc.
- the special alice group - all the leftover people with odd or strange alices which don't fit into the other groups. examples are like Mikan's self protecting/negation thing, people who can make their souls come out of their bodies and afix them to other objects,
- people with dangerous alices (like Natsume) - this group is pretty mysterious and is led by Persona
2. What was the 'Aladdin and the Magic Lamp' thing Mikan and co did? This is what the Special Alice group did for the Alice School/Academy's cultural festival. It was a kind of RPG-ish game with different levels covered by different members of the Special Alice group. The person who wins and makes it through the RPG gets to pick a lantern which allows them to get 3 wishes within a week, from the person whose lantern they picked.
3. Why did they choose a male to play female lead and vice versa for the play?
I'm not sure - I think maybe they just thought it would be cute? or very fitting for the play? At first the prince wasn't supposed to be Mikan - it was supposed to be that girl (whose name I've forgotten) who had pheromone powers to attract other girls. :P And I think they wanted Luca in the part of snow white because of the whole animal thing (which BTW, is just adorable)
4. At one point, someone (I think Narumi?) is thinking something about some sort of unknown strength protecting Mikan. 'Itsuka kanojo o mamoru chikara ni naru.' That's correct right? What's he talking about? I think he's talking about her alice right? The one that protects her from other people's alices by negating them.
Sorry for bombarding you with all these questions! #_# I hope you don't mind answering them... - No problem. I'm just slow at answering. Hope you don't mind ^^;
As a random thing, did you notice how amazingly short Natsume's eyebrows are? I never noticed it till my friend (yay, I got one friend into Gakuen Alice!) pointed it out to me. Yamaneko!Natsume is adorable. XD
- yeah, I didn't notice either until you pointed it out. ^^;; I think it's easier to make him look mad/disgruntled most of the time that way... maybe?
- Things like the fact that Mikan is adopted, and is somehow related to the girl from Narumi-sensei's generation who also had the power to negate other people's alices to protect herself. I'm assuming Mikan's probably her daughter. ...I am dying to read/find out the backstory on this and to see Narumi-sensei and Co during this period when younger.
- The whole Z thing just needs to be explained more. Along with more explanations and backstory on the spies within the school.
- What's Narumi-sensei's plan for Mikan (why she's important, etc.) this is of course related to the first thing I mentioned.
- More info on the purpose/goals of both the school and Z, etc.
- More info on the special forces group (ok, I know it's not really called that, I just can't think of what it is at the moment) that has all the dangerous alices in it - the one led by Persona.
- and while we're at it, more info on Persona would be nice too.
- The whole thing where some Alices are harmful to their owner's health, especially if overused, can suck away at their lives. Like Natsume's.
- More info on Mikan's alice which is probably tied into 1 and 3.
- More info on why Natsume killed off a whole village, or the backstory on him/his alice and Luca, etc.
I picked up my vol 6 Gakuen Alice manga a few weeks ago so no I finally have no gaps in the storyline! <3 In case anyone's interested in what happens.. that's you anon! (unless you've already had your questions answered)
BTW, random but I love the 15 yr old versions that Higuchi-sensei is doing in the tankoubon. So the previous volume ends with the backstory on Mr. Bear and the student who made him, Sonoo Kaname. And towards the last few pages we see that Natsume is taking medicine, likely for the side effects/wearing out of his body that using his alice causes. ;__; Vol. 6 starts with Iincho has won the Excellent student award - the one that Hotaru was aiming for at the beginning of the series. And so he gets to go back to his hometown for a week. In the meantime there's news of people outside of the school who have been losing their Alice ablilties for unknown reasons. We also meet Tonouchi Akira (Tono-sempai) whose alice is the ability to strengthen other people's alices. On the way back to the school Iincho runs across some (highly suspicious) lady, and when he gets back to the school they realize that he can't use his alice anymore. It seems to have disappeared. Eventually they figure out that the alice disappearance incidents are likely related to the Z group - one of the members alice is probably the ability to steal other people's alices. Theres also some more stuff to progress the triangle relationship between luca, natsume, and mikan. Because Natsume had been avoiding Mikan after Persona kind of threatens him in the previous volume. And so Mikan asks why and he answeres because he hates her. But we see via Luca's memories that when Natsume says he hates something... it doesn't necessarily mean he hates it. Let me know if you want me to elaborate... I'm really trying to make this short (and failing horribly x_X)
That right about where they find out that someone from Z has snuck their way into the academy/school. Instead of staying put the way they're told, Hotaru and Mikan go looking for the Z members to see who it was that stole Iincho's alice. There's some really cute Iincho, Mikan, and Hotaru scenes in the volume. uh, not in the romantic sense. Anyways, of course Mikan and Hotaru get found/seen by the Z members and right when their about to steal Mikan's alice, the school's police? guards? come and the two of them are caught in the crossfire. Hotaru pushes Mikan out of the way to save her, but ends up getting shot herself. The bullet didn't cause any life threatening damage, but there was a virus within the bullet and the school doesn't know what it is yet, etc. Traumatized Mikan blames herself and there are some really sweet Mikan and Hotaru sections/scenes in this. Especially where Hotaru is trying to comfort Mikan - especially because we (and Mikan) know that Hotaru is really scared and hurting herself, and yet she wants to comfort and take care of Mikan, etc. Anyways, we get some pretty cute Luca and Mikan scenes here too. And Natsume watching from a window above as Luca tries to comfort Mikan.
Anyways, so after talking to Tono-sempai, etc it seems the way Z might have entered is that through the rumored hidden tunnel in the High school area. Mikan wants to use the tunnel to chase after Z. In the meantime, Natsume overhears the sensei-tachi talking. At first about how the principal won't allow Hotaru's parents to visit her. And the something about Mikan which we don't get to hear even though he does. ARG! >_<;;; Likely about who she is - how she's related to "that girl" (...like I said before, which girl? ...I don't know. *sob*) And then Jinno-sensei warns Narumi-sensei to watch out for himself, because the principal has noticed his recent actions, etc. Oh right, and somewhere around here is where we first meet Penguin <3 the robot made by Hotaru who was returned to her because it missed her so much it cried all the time at it's new owner's place. XD; This is also the bit where Hotaru asks Natsume what he's doing here (in the hospital in front of her room) instead of with Mikan and Co. - because that's the place where he should be.
Anyways, so back to Mikan who's determined to use the tunnel and go after Z to capture them, get the antidote for Hotaru, and get Iincho's alice back. While they're all discussing this (mainly people are telling Mikan it's a ridiculous idea) Luca remember how Mikan was talking about feeling useless, wanting to have the ability to help/do something, and he relates this to what Natsume once told him about wanting to become more powerful/grow up soon. And so he comes out and says he'll help Mikan. ...which of course surprises everyone. Natsume soon follows after that. Anyways, eventually pretty much everyone agrees to help in some way. But Tono doesn't really know exactly where the tunnel is, and the High school section is off limits to the Gradeschoolers.
It's at this point that Penguin hands over a purse full of Gariba (Gulliver?) candies to Mikan. The have things written on them like up 4, down 2, etc. Anyways, they're from Hotaru and will allow you to temporarily age up or down after eating the candy. They have the classmates, etc help out to cover up for them while they're away. Oh I think I forgot to mention that Natsume and the other dangerous ablilites/secret sect people were called earlier to get orders to carry out some mission earlier, but Natsume says he's going to ignore it/brush it off. I'd assume the orders would have had something to do with Z anyhow? Anyways, so off they go into the High school section. OMG. The three of them aged up to 15 yrs old. XD <3 :D *__* Although, I personally think Mikan would look cuter if she took out the ponytails. But I guess they must keep them there for consistency. ;__; Oh I forgot to mention - so the group going is Mikan, Luca, Natsume, and Tsubasa, with Tono-sempai leadin the way into the High School area - since he's a high schooler and they're going to go talk to someone who may have more info on the secret tunnel. Anyways once they're there they run into some trouble when Mikan's ageing up effect has started to wear off and she and Luca step into a trap somewhere along the way. And they finally end up in the News club/group where Hayami the club captain has more info for them. It's likely in this spot where supposedly lots of ghosts appear - usually in a pair. ...but one of the ghosts is the spliting image of one of the students at the academy (in actuality they're not ghosts) - one of the school representatives - Sakurano Shuuichi. (which we met briefly in one of the earlier volumes).
And that's it for vol 6. *pantpant* ^^;;;
So the reason I've been neglecting the manga and anime, is because there's been a sudden influx of fangirly/fannish games over here. I up and bought Tokimeki Girl's side, because it's cheap now ($20-$25) and it finally arrived a few weeks ago, and then the sibling's (Oh so much love!) christmas present just arrived the other day and it's the PS2 version of Meine Liebe. I haven't actually watched more than the first ep of Meine Liebe. And I haven't played the Meine Liebe GBA rom that's been floating around since I wanted to wait and buy the fully voiced version.
So anyways, I finished my first playthrough of Tokimeki. In which I sucked. hard. T_T I got the ending with the Tsukushi, the little brother. x_X I didn't even meet all the characters available. T___T I only ran into ...I am dying to get Chiharu - who I'm assuming is the blue haired guy you keep running into at the mall who has that terribly accented japanese? <3 ... I must needs to get him! So far the only people I ran into during the 1st playthrough was Hazuki Kei (comes standard I imagine), Morumura Sakuya, Mihara Shiki, and Himuro-sensei. work harder at this. ^^;; I need to collect them all!! So I can unlock the freetalks! Oh be still my fangirl heart. XD;
As much as I like Yamaguchi Kappei's voice, I just cannot get behind going for Hibiya Wataru. ...Because he reminds me of Horio, which is all sorts of wrong. x_X I don't much care for Morimura Sakuya either, although I was aiming for him out of the people I was able to meet. To tell you the truth, I don't much care for any of the characters so far. ^^;; Except for Chiharu. :P~ And a plus - he's voiced by Shou-chan. I'm pretty sure it's him.. and he's listed as ??? character in the game pamphlet, which Chiharu isn't listed in. It does make me chortle that Wataru-kun likes to watch anime, and Morimura-kun likes video games though.
... I want someone to make a love sim with the mentally imbalanced, power/strength crazed vilian character sterotype. Like Hisoka or Akabane.
Anyways other than that, I just started Meine Liebe and if it weren't enough that Seki-san was voicing Ludwig w/ that awesome voice. He sparkles like nothing I've seen before. WTFLOL! There's seriously a whole shiny outline and sparkles everywhere when he shows up. XD XD XD ... and there's even a chime/harp thing that goes off every time he says something. LOL. Does this happen for every character eventually or is it just Ludwig? How could I not like a character like this? So far, he's the only person who will go with me to Stonehenge. :P
Other than that, the PoT: Rush and Dream is already out, but I've pretty much lost all interest in PoT, and I've still yet to get Kabaji on S&T2. It's funny - while I have really no desire to read/watch PoT, playing the game is still fun. I'm not really sure why. Also in case anyone else out there didn't already know, the Gakuen Alice GBA game has been out for a while now. While I would love to play mary sue. (whose alice is the ability to predict weather? ...okay. XD;;) It looks fun and sim-ish. And the pet system looks pretty cute too. The funds are low at the moment, and grah $45 for a GBA game? ...I really wish they'd up the price to $60-$65 and make it a PS2 game, because then I'd have no doubts about whether or not I'd get it.
Other than that, it looks like there are voice clips on the Haruka3 site now in the character section. I've not heard Naokun use a sexy voice before. (!) But he sounds pretty good there, and much love for his character's character design. But, whoa. Hoshi-kun's voice is so very low. o__O It almost doesn't seem to match the character design. ...I abhor the Ishida-kun's character's character design. wah. All I can think is that he stepped right out of Mortal Kombat. >_<; There's small pics for who I assume are the Oni, but no character profiles or voice clips yet.
Not sure if either of you will see this here, but
worldserpent or kakoten Do either of you know if there's a big difference between the Taiwan and HK versions of Ravages of Time? ... and which versions did you end up picking up? eikitty - ignore everything else and look here!Ingredients:
Eggplants - I usually use 1-2 asian eggplants (you know the long thin purple ones)
ground or cubed pork (you can also used ground turkey, although I think it tastes better with pork) - I usually use about a 1 to 2 handfuls (uh, sorry about the crappy measurements)
small handful of asian salted black beans (you should be able to buy this from your local asian grocery store)
seasonings:
garlic - a few cloves smashed and then minced.
ginger - a thin slice minced
lots of corn starch (3 or 4 large heaping spoonfuls)
a sprinkle of hot pepper flakes
dash of soysauce
dash of rice wine
a couple drops of sesame oil
drizzle of olive oil or whatever cooking oil you use
salt to taste
Optional (although I usually don't add this) - dried cured/salted orange peel (I don't how else to call this ^^;;)
Wash your black beans a bit (doesn't need to be too thorough) add the garlic, ginger, soysauce, rice wine, olive oil, and sesame oil to it. Mash it up into a paste.
take the paste and mix it into your meat. Add cornstarch and mix again. Let sit while you chop your eggplant in the rolling fashion - where you cut on a diagonal, roll it a little and the cut again. (really, you can cut it however you want.. I just like it this way).
when you're done chopping add the eggplant to the mix and then salt the whole thing lightly. If you have time, you can let it marinate at this point. Otherwise, steam the whole thing until it's done. It shouldn't take that long, maybe 10 minutes or so? Be sure to mix it again when it comes out of the steamer. Spoon over rice or some other starchy side.
