AKB0048 Ep 7

This episode starts out with Nagisa waking up, and looking at her wall full of Yuuko pictures.

Linda notices that Nagisa's oshimen is Yuuko, and takes a picture. Nagisa asks Linda who her oshimen is, and Linda says Sonata, as she is placing her bets early. Nagisa is amazed. Sonata comes in hopping like a frog, saying that Tsubasa is calling for them. However, Chieri is still asleep with Kirara. 

What does "oshimen" mean? Oshimen is the merging of the words "oshi" and "member". Oshi comes from the verb "osu" which means "to support". Nagisa's oshimen is Yuuko = Nagisa is a Yuuko supporter/fan. 

Tsubasa informs the understudies about a few of the successors being invited to a peace ceremony, but there is a concert that is happening at the same time, and they cannot cancel it. Therefore, some of the understudies will be replacing the spots of the successors, which is the original meaning of the understudies. (I briefly talked about this in my blog post of AKB0048 Ep 1.) Tsubasa explains that for AKB0048, only those who have completed their combat training can be on stage. However, since the tide is turning in favour of entertainment, this allows the understudies to become stand-ins at concerts if ever a successor is unavailable. 

AKB0048 Ep 6

This episode starts out with a promotional video of the 77th generation playing on the beach, while AKB48's latest single, at the time this anime was released, "Manatsu no Sounds Good" plays in the background.

Footage of idols playing around on the beach in swimsuits is not uncommon, and you will most often see idol photobooks that primarily consists of them in bikinis, no matter what their age.

AKB0048 Ep 5

Sorry for the delay. >.< Let's move onwards to episode 5!

The episode starts out with Nagisa waking up, and realizing that she's late. When she gets to the washrooms, she notices everyone trying to get some space in front of the bathroom mirror.

This part is actually similar to when many of the AKB48 members have to share one mirror in order to do their makeup. While they have someone to do their hair, they have to apply their own makeup.

After that, they are all happily eating breakfast. The food is so good that they ask Chef Papa for seconds. 

Mmm... Looks good. 

Idol Auditions in Japan

This was supposed to be in my review of AKB0048 Episode 3, but since there is a lot to talk about, I decided to make a post all about it.

When it comes to idol auditions in Japan, there are multiple rounds. It generally follows the scheme of application round --> intensive training round --> final judgement round. There can be different rounds between each and within these rounds.
- The application round is based solely on the application form.
- The intensive training round involves intensive training in singing and dancing, as well as learning a new song or a new dance. After learning the new song and dance routine, they must show all their hard work to judges. This round will demonstrate to the judges how quickly these girls can learn songs and dances under pressure. Most importantly, it provides the girls with vital training necessary to become an idol.
- The final judgement round selects those who have officially made it into the group.

In AKB0048, the first round was a video audition. The second round was intensive training with judging at the end of it. There was no final round, as the judging in the 2nd round eliminated many of the girls, leaving us with the 77th generation.

Let's look at some televised auditions from over the years, starting from the most recent.

Audition #1
Let's take a look at the auditions for the AKB48 sister group, NMB48. NMB stands for Namba in Osaka, which is where they are primarily focusing to get there talent from. This is to keep up with the idea of "idols you can meet", so Aki-P has started sister groups in different regions of Japan like with SKE48 (Nagoya's Sakae), and the newest sister group, HKT48 (Fukuoka's Hakate). The thing with NMB48 is that many people, especially celebrities, don't think an idol group will be successful in Osaka because Osaka is known to be the comedy central of Japan.

AKB0048 Ep 4

In this episode, we'll learn about the kenkyuuseis (understudies/research students), and what it takes to become a successor. 

The episode starts out with showing the exterior of AKB0048's theater at Akibastar.

We see the 77th generation enter AKB0048's exclusive concert hall with mixed emotions. Of course, since AKB0048 is so popular, the theater is packed.

Two understudies come on stage to perform the opening act before the main show starts.

This is true for AKB48 as well. Here's a link to an actual stage performance of the same song ("The Lemon Season" / "Lemon no Toshigoro"), and of course in the same outfits by AKB48's current understudies. This gives the understudies a chance to perform, and increase their fanbase, which is especially important for the yearly AKB48 elections (Senbatsu Sousenkyou).

AKB0048 Ep 3

Episode 3 starts out with Nagisa, Yuka, and Orine summarizing what has happened to them so far in one line. They are surprised to see so many girls that have been accepted into the selection round. 

The person who walks in is Katagiri Tsubasa. 

Orine is surprised to hear the word "manager". (To those who don't know, the manager position in AKB48 is held by Togasaki, who has helped Aki-P create AKB48 from the ground up whether it be finding the location for the theater to be built, listening to fans' feedback, or delivering important announcements. He is revered by AKB48 members, and fans alike for all his hard work. It's only fitting that the importance of the manager position is also reflected in this anime. Of course recently, Takamina has become general manager of AKB48 as announced in the shuffle at Tokyo Dome.)

AKB0048 Ep 2

Onwards to episode 2! What will you learn about AKB48 next?

This episode starts out with Orine, Yuka, and Nagisa walking around a "spaceport" (you know, an airport but in space ^_^"), and Orine is bumped into by someone who looks like they are in a hurry. There is a close-up on the monitor, saying that the heiress of the Zodiac Corporation is either missing or kidnapped. The "in a rush" person notices the monitor, and is then joined by a kirara. Who could this person be? 

After the opening, we see Yokomizo Makoto, a girl who seems to only be thinking about the worst-case scenario, especially being in space with only a metal wall separating her from the nothingness.

If the worst-case scenario did happen, her only regret would be not making it to the second round of auditions. She also says to her parents from afar that she's sorry for running away.

Morning Musume's Newest Member: Oda Sakura

I'm a bit late, but congratulations to the newest member of Morning Musume: Oda Sakura!

I don't know very much about Oda Sakura, other than that she auditioned for S/mileage's New Member Audition, and did not make it through. Here's the video of her audition. Her singing starts just before the 1:30 mark, and it sounds like she's just imitating the S/mileage members' voices. It sounds like she's trying to force herself to sound cute. This is most likely the reason why she didn't make it into S/mileage.

AKB0048 Ep 1

It's time to review something new. Someone mentioned that I should review AKB0048, so here it is. Surprisingly, you'll learn a lot about AKB48 and the idol world in Japan in the process, so please look forward to that. There will also be links to performances whenever possible. I will also be referring to members by their "old" teams, since this anime was created before the recent shuffle. 

The episode starts with the following:

These lines look like they were inspired from the Team B song "Shonichi" (First day [of performances]), which is actually the first song of their first setlist personalized just for them (their two prior stages were taken from Team A and Team K stages, respectively). In the first chorus of this song, it starts with "Yume wa ase no naka ni" ("The dream is amidst the sweat"). The second chorus starts with "Yume wa namida no saki" ("The dream is just ahead of the tears"). You can find the rest of the lyrics (with translations) here. 

The motto for AKB0048 is "idols that come to see you". For AKB48, it's "idols that you can come meet and watch at the theater everyday". It's switched around, but still keeps the essence of what AKB48 is about: interaction with the fans. After every performance at the theater, the AKB48 members that performed on stage will give a high five to all of the audience members. That's how important their fans are to them. On a side note, I think that's Aki-P's (Akimoto Yasushi) name in the credits.

AKB48's Janken Tournament 2012

September 18th was AKB48's annual Janken (Rock-Paper-Scissors) Tournament, where those with the strongest luck and motivation to become center will be part of the Best 16 senbatsu for the 29th single. I'll be writing what I saw from "live" footage on Kayou Kyoku.

Warning: this post will be extremely (low quality) picture heavy!

Note: I'll be referring to the members by their "old" team names, since that's what the announcer in the tournament was doing. 

Highlights from the first 3 rounds (before Best 16)

AKB48 Team K Oshima Yuko (right) sexies it up with her police outfit and wins her first round against ex-team member, Kuramochi Asuka (AKB48 Team A).

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AKB48 Team K Minegishi Minami (right) struck out on her first round after placing 3rd in last year's tournament. 

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Montreal Comic-Con 2012

So on Saturday, September 15th, I attended Montreal Comic-Con. I didn't have any particular expectations; I just wanted to shop, attend some panels, and enjoy myself.

I arrived at 8:45am at the Palais des Congrès, and there were so many people waiting to get inside. Luckily, the line moved quite a bit during the time I was waiting, and I was even able to get upstairs, after getting stamped, into a holding area until 10 am, which is when the convention starts.

I followed the mob of people to the dealer's area, and it was huge. It was definitely going to take me all day to get through it, but I only browsed through 3 aisles until I left to go attend Johnny Yong Bosch's panel at 11 am. I got there 20 minutes before the start, and JYB was saying how we were so early. I apologized, and he said he didn't mind, it's just that they were still setting up. Check out the pre-panel footage here. I wasn't particularly a fan of JYB before this panel because I haven't really played (besides some Sengoku Basara) or watched any anime that he voice acted in. However, I was smiling throughout his entire panel, and loved every second of it. I'm his fan for life now. <3

The Graduation of AKB48's Center and the Unexpected Shuffle

If you've heard of AKB48, then you must have heard about Maeda Atsuko, nicknamed Acchan, who has graduated from AKB48 on August 27 to pursue her solo career.

Maeda Atsuko / Acchan

In the beginning, Acchan never wanted to be AKB's center, but Aki-P (Akimoto Yasushi) wanted someone to be the face of AKB48, and chose her. Her center position status became apparent when Acchan had all the singing lines in A2 (Team A 2nd Stage)'s "Nagisa no Cherry". Although, when I first got into AKB48 and saw "Skirt Hirari", I thought for sure that Takamina (Takahashi Minami) was the center as she had the most lines. As I saw more of their performances, the center of AKB48 was definitely Acchan and Takamina for me. For more details on AKB48's history --> http://vid48.com/watch_video.php?v=DWB6YX3KOY2D

Takahashi Minami / Takamina

With the immovable center now out of the picture, it seems that Aki-P wants to change things up a lot. There was a shuffle in 2009 during the "Soukaku Matsuri" where all the performances were done by different members than the original stage performances. No one knew that this was a big hint that AKB48 would be shuffled. Even though the shuffle was shocking, the placement of members made sense. Kasai Tomomi definitely had the cuteness that fit Team B. Itano Tomomi definitely had a coolness about her that fit Team K. Even though it took some time to get used to who used to be in what team and what team they were in now, it all made sense in the end in terms of the fit and the balance within the teams. For those who aren't sure how the teams are classified, you can think of it in these terms: Team A is the idol team; Team K is the cool team, and Team B is the cute team. 

Kasai Tomomi / Tomo~mi / Chiyu

Itano Tomomi / Tomochin

Otakuthon 2012

The biggest part of my summer was preparing for Otakuthon 2012. Did you attend?

As staff, I have a lot of information to organize and sort through, so it wasn't easy. Also, the more information I receive, the better it is for me, but also means a lot more work to translate this information into what it needs to be. Luckily, I have an amazing assistant to help me with all this work. 

However, I was far from ready in terms of performing at Otakuthon. This year, I was participating in 2 songs at J-Music in Motion, which I usually never do since I'm a coach. Also, I was asked to do a solo song at the Closing Ceremonies. To be able to stand on stage for 3 songs was amazing for me, but it was so difficult to get ready for, especially since my weekdays are occupied with my internship position, which is pretty important for my scientific career. I was so busy that I couldn't upload any new videos to my Youtube account nor did I even have time to update my blog. @.@ Hopefully, I can get back on track with all those things soon. 

Summer is over? @.@

Hey!

So... I kind of disappeared for awhile because I just got so overwhelmed with all the things I had to do this summer, whether planned or unplanned. ^_^"

For the planned part, I was busy with Otakuthon up until even after the convention was over. I'll write a separate post about that.

For the unplanned part, I got an internship at a research lab, and I started working there since the first week of July, so I've been pretty busy with that, and I still have tons of scientific papers to read. @.@ It's a big learning curve for me, but it's definitely going to be worth it in the end.

I had originally planned to just work for one year, and then go back to school to get my Master's degree. However, there are so few job offers in my field, and the job offers that I've found ask for 3-5 years of experience, which is pretty much impossible to get at my age, especially since getting a summer internship of 4 months is already difficult. So, things happened, and I'm on my way to doing my Master's, which will take at least 2 years to complete.

Hmm.. What else did I do this summer? Well before Otakuthon, I went to see some movies at Fantasia. I usually see about 2 movies every year, but this year I saw 5 movies. I saw Ultraman Monster Galaxy Battle, which was pretty good. I got to learn a lot about the history of Ultraman by one of the Fantasia staff in charge of screening the film just before it started. The second movie I saw was "The Kick". It's a Korean movie about Taekwondo; it was funny, and action-packed all the way through. It's a definite must-see. Then I saw a movie called "Quick" right after. From the trailer, I thought there was supposed to be some funny parts, but when I saw the movie, there was very little of that. It was actually ridiculously stressful, since a mail courier who drives a motorcycle is forced to deliver bombs to certain people or else his ex-girlfriend will be killed because there is a bomb in his helmet, which she is wearing. The guy still secretly loves her, but broke up with her in the past because he didn't want to be a negative influence on her. >.< The fourth movie I saw was Phoenix Wright. It was amazing. I didn't even play the games, but I definitely want to play them now.  The last movie I saw was "Love Fiction", another Korean movie. This one was a romantic comedy. I found it interesting, but my sister found it boring. I guess nothing can beat "My Sassy Girl" when it comes to Korean romantic comedies.

Hakuoki: Kazama's Story

Going for #5. This time, I'm going to switch it up a bit, and go after a demon. Oh yeah~

Kazama: *Hmpf*

To get onto Kazama's path, it's kind of a back-and-forth between Hijikata's and Okita's path, since Okita fights Kazama at Ikeda Inn, and Hijikata fights Kazama at Mount Tennou.

The CG you get of Amagiri, Kazama, and Shiranui just before they tell Chizuru that she's a demon.

Kazama clearly likes to take his time to kidnap Chizuru. The first time, he just tells her that she's a demon, then the Shinsengumi appear to save her. The second time, he catches her off-guard while she's cleaning the grounds of Niji Hongwanji Temple just to ask her who Kodo is, which she replies is her father. Kazama is surprised, and the Shinsengumi appear once again to protect her. As Kazama leaves, he tells her that Kodo is with him, and that she should keep that in mind.

***BEWARE: SPOILERS AHEAD!***

Hakuoki: Harada's Story

Fell for 3 guys out of 6 so far. Who will be the next guy I fall for... *cough* I mean Chizuru falls for. ^_^"

For my 4th playthrough, I decided to follow Harada's story. From previous playthroughs, he's portrayed as the most friendly of your potential lovers, and is also very popular with the ladies.

To get onto Harada's path, you have to choose "attempt to explain my situation", and then choose "gave up". Harada says how he likes the determination in Chizuru's eyes (love animation), and gets into a stance as if he's going to cut her down. Saito stops him, saying that they have not finished discussing what they should do with her. Harada says he knows, and just wanted to play with a girl that has so much guts to call for the captains of the Shinsengumi, and then submit to her fate. Of course, Heisuke and Nagakura are surprised Chizuru is a girl, etc.

***BEWARE: SPOILERS AHEAD!***

Hakuoki: Heisuke's Story

So I finished by 3rd playthrough of Hakuoki! Can you tell how much I love this game? I decided to go after Heisuke for my 3rd playthrough. When I first looked at the art, I didn't like Heisuke at all. He looked too much like Goku from Saiyuki (mostly because of the eyes). However, after playing through Hakuoki the first time, I really liked Heisuke's personality, and I couldn't wait to play through his story after I finished Okita's.

When you arrive at your first option, choose "attempt to explain my situation". Conversation happens, and Heisuke is all like "a man should just admit to his fate" or something like that. Then choose "tell them that I wasn't a boy", and that really shuts up Heisuke for saying what he did. Strangely enough, you get a love animation. He's also the only one that makes you call him by his first name, since he prefers being called by his first name, and Chizuru is close in age with him anyway.

***BEWARE: SPOILERS AHEAD!***

Hakuoki: Okita's Story

So I'm off to fall in love with another guy in Hakuoki. This time, I picked Okita Souji because he's one of the first guys you meet in the game. Since there are many times when he's with Saito, I thought that he wouldn't be too different from Saito, other than that he talks a lot more. I was so wrong on this one. (Note: all pics are taken straight from the opening.)

For Saito, he would never say anything to hurt Chizuru because he always chooses his words carefully, and he gets unexpectedly romantic near the end (after chipping away the ice to uncover all the warm fuzzies).

All I can say about this pic of Saito is "rawr" *blush*

Okita, on the other hand, is actually pretty mean in a teasing kind of way, but that kind of personality gets me agitated, confused, and flustered all at the same time though. When you get to your first option, I chose "find a way to escape". Of course, if you try to escape, then they'll kill you. So Okita is all like "It looks like we'll have to kill you now", and Chizuru says "just do it then", since she did break her promise, and then Okita laughs it off saying that he didn't mean to frighten her and be so mean. I then get a love animation with him. Seriously?! I get a love animation for telling him to kill me. This already sounds like a strange relationship.

***BEWARE: SPOILERS AHEAD***

Hakuoki: Saito's Story

Last week, I finally got the chance to play Hakuoki ~Demon of the Fleeting Blossom~ after it had been sitting on my shelf for a good 2-3 months. This is the second Otome game I've played, the first one being Princess Debut on the DS (which I will eventually finish someday).

*This pic is from the Hakuoki fankit at www.hakuoki.com

Hakuoki takes place during the rise and fall of the Shinsengumi between 1864 to 1868. You see the growth of the Shinsengumi from being a group of unappreciated samurai keeping the peace to protecting the shogun to eventually being wiped out by Western weapons, such as guns and cannons, rendering the way of the sword as useless. Beware though, this game is text heavy to explain the history, but you can skip through text you've seen before when you play through it again.

The story of Hakuoki follows the main female protagonist, Yukimura Chizuru (her first name can be changed, but not her family name). She had been sending letters to her father who is in Kyoto, but stopped receiving replies from him all of the sudden. She gets worried about her father and decides to leave Edo for Kyoto. Having heard stories of Kyoto being a dangerous place, she dresses herself up as a boy. Once she gets there, she is suppose to meet up with her father's friend, Matsumoto. Unfortunately, he just left town a few days prior and won't be back for quite awhile. Chizuru is upset since she had sent a letter to him beforehand that she would be arriving in Kyoto, but it seems like he left before he even received her letter.

Happy Mother's Day!

Hey everyone, I hope you all treated your mother to something special today.

For Mother's day, I went with my family and a few relatives to visit my grandparents on my mother's side at the cemetery. It's actually been my first time to see their gravestones since their passing. My mom always brought flowers and soil, but I got to see first hand what they do every year for Mother's day (and I suspect it's not that different for Father's day). I asked my mom to guide me through what my sister and I should be doing to properly pay respects. I should mention that I'm half-Chinese, and that half comes from my mom. 

Sakura Kara no Tegami

About a month or two ago, I watched this AKB48 drama called Sakura Kara no Tegami. It's basically about a portion of the AKB girls in their last year of high school and they need to figure out what they want to do in the future. Usually, the homeroom teacher helps them out, but their homeroom teacher is very distant from them, and everyone thinks that he doesn't care about anyone except a dying Sakura tree in the middle of the school grounds, which is a symbol of the school and the reason why the students are called Sakura maidens (it's an all-girl school by the way). 

What causes the lives of these girls to be shaken is that their homeroom teacher suddenly announces that he will no longer be their homeroom teacher because he has pancreatic cancer. Of course, the girls don't really care that he's no longer their homeroom teacher because he didn't do much for them in the first place, but what shakes them up is the personalized letter that he gives to each of them that he says might be his will. Some try to read the letters, but can't understand the message, and the others stuff it in their bags. 

Throughout the series, you eventually find out one by one what the letters mean and how they end up solving the problems of each girl and guiding them to who they should be or what they should do. You even find out why the homeroom teacher was so distant, and his strained relationship with his daughter. When the girls realize how much their homeroom teacher did pay attention to them, they wanted to repay him somehow. During this time, the principal decided to cut down the Sakura tree becomes it seems like it's dead. However, the students do their best to protect it and make it grow before graduation. They try everything to revive the tree, but with no success. So they decide to make Sakura flowers and stick it on the tree to make it appear as if it is in full bloom. Their homeroom teacher is wheelchaired to see their work and he is proud of every one of them. He then passes away a few days later, leaving his students changed for the better. Eventually, the Sakura tree does come back to life again and all the students come to visit it and reminisce about their last year in high school. You can check out all 17 episodes (which vary from 5 mins to 1 hour in length) subbed at vid48.com (starting from page 3).

Formspring Question

I received a Formspring question a few months ago asking the following: "How hard was it to learn a new song and dance in Japanese for you?" I tried to answer this on Formspring, but I have a lot to write about, so I think it's better that I make a blog post about it.

The simple answer is that it's pretty difficult. Japanese is not my mother tongue, but I really like the language. When I listen to a new song that I want to learn, I often don't pay enough attention to the words themselves. If I did, I would understand the context a lot better from the start. ^_^" It's something I need to work on and pay attention to, but it often slips my mind because I'm so into the music of the song. In terms of which is more difficult to memorize between the lyrics and the dance moves, it would have to be the lyrics hands down. It's usually what slows me down and takes the most time for me to learn. 

When it comes to learning a new dance, it's always difficult to follow at first. You have to first start in the right position and then remember which arm or leg moves first, etc. However, when the dance is broken down step-by-step, it becomes a lot easier to follow (watching videos at half speed help a lot). The tricky thing about learning dances is that it is not as simple as it looks. Often times, I replicate the moves as I see them, but they don't look the same as what the original dancers are doing. A good example of this is in my cover of Majide Suka Ska! where in the beginning part, I have to first put both hands on my hips and then both hands behind my back. But when I watch my cover, both parts look exactly the same. This was because I didn't practice in front of a mirror. 

Suugaku Joshi Gakuen Ep 12

It's the final episode. What does everyone think about math now?

Nina is confused why her sister, Machida Kina, is here. Kina explains that she's here to fight Nina. Kina explains to Kazuki and Sayuri that Nina came to this school to find Kina and find out what happened to her after she became Math Boss. Nina is still confused and Kina says that she wants to rule over all the mathematicians in the world. (What? Why?) Kina wants to wipe out all the math schools using her position as Math Boss, even this one. Kina didn't want any mathematician to get in her way of ruling the world.

Nina is in shock. The sister she knew would never act like this. She would be so happy and excited about math, but the person she's looking at has dead eyes. Kina says it looks like she has to fight Nina and destroy her. Nina accepts the challenge and will defeat this impostor. Kina is so confident that she'll win that she tells Nina that this will be her last battle.

Team Nina and Kina are in a classroom, where Kina explains that the book she's holding holds 1200 years of math history, including 20,000 math problems that have been unsolved during all those years. Kina says that she'll choose a random unsolved math problem and Nina accepts. The problem Kina chooses is "Clearly prove that 1 + 1 = 2". Kazuki comments saying that everyone knows that answer is correct, but how would you go about proving it.

Suugaku Joshi Gakuen Ep 11

This episode starts right away with the results of the second round of poker where Reiko has 3 queens, Nina has a pair of jacks, Sayuri has a pair of 9s, but Kazuki has a lonely 8. Reiko wins the second round. Team Nina feels very defeated at the moment. How can they win at this rate?

Nina knows that their approach of trying to win with 2 pairs is not working. She knows that they need Kazuki to pick a card that either matches Nina's or Sayuri's cards. Reiko discards one card. 

Nina then realizes that the suit of the card (hearts, spades, diamonds or clubs) is just as important as the denomination of the card. They would have the highest chance to get a flush if they all have cards from the same suit. Nina discards a 7 of spades and king of clubs. Nina then picks up 2 cards, from her face, it looks like she's got 2 cards from the same suit. Sayuri tries to figure out why Nina would discard both cards, and comes to the conclusion that Nina is aiming for a flush. Sayuri discards a 7 of diamonds and looks at Nina for reassurance. Nina nods and says to herself that they are going for a flush of hearts. Nina and Sayuri both stare down at Kazuki hoping he'll understand, but Kazuki ends up changing cards in panic.

Suugaku Joshi Gakuen Ep 10

3 more episodes left! Let's do this.

The episode starts out with Kazuki's monologue (it's been awhile since the last time an episode was introduced like this), where he talks about how time has flown, and that he's getting over his fear of math, but that everything is going to crash because of one girl. (Is he talking about the girl at the end of the last episode?)

The male teacher introduces a new transfer student whose name is Shirokane Reiko (played by Mano Erina, the only soloist in Hello! Project). She enters via red carpet put out for her by her assistant Meguro Yuu (played by Miyamoto Karin, one of the most well-known H!P eggs). Reiko has a very haughty, royalty type personality and way of speaking and says that she entered this school because of her love for math. Kazuki feels that Reiko wouldn't fit in with their class, and Reiko is already picking a fight with Nina through fiery eye contact, causing a thunderstorm to suddenly start. 

Reiko: Fear my flaming eyes!

Suddenly, the male teacher calls for a class meeting during break time. Reiko announces that there are changes to the school regulations. Everyone in class doesn't understand what's going, including Mami. Reiko explains that there are things that she can't stand in this school, so she wants to get rid of them. Sayuri asks how is she even allowed to do this? Reiko is super rich because of her father's company and her father will do anything that she asks him to. Reiko says that she's studied up on the school before coming and has a list of things to be banned including dialects (which Nina uses quite often), saying that everyone needs to speak beautiful Japanese like her (although, Kazuki is quick to point out that she doesn't speak that beautifully). 

Suugaku Joshi Gakuen Ep 9

Let's keep on going!

This episode starts off with Nina wondering about what she saw last time concerning her older sister. Nina is sure that's it's her, but if it was why didn't her sister say anything to her. Nina decides to stop thinking about it or else she'll go crazy trying to figure it out. In the meantime, Mami is trying to get Kazuki and Sayuri to read this "romantic" novel that has a thief, a princess and a detective in it. She's in love with what she thinks is a romantic line, but Sayuri says it's just cheesy because Mami only reads detective novels, so she doesn't know what love is all about. Mami says that Sayuri never had a boyfriend so what does she know. Sayuri says that she just can't get one and points the finger at Mami saying that she's learning about love through books. Mami retaliates saying that she could get a boyfriend anytime she wanted to, but Sayuri doesn't think so. Nina tells them to cut it out.

The episode cuts to Mami reading her favourite part to Kazuki and Sayuri, but they are both sleeping. Right when she's about to get to the key part, the male teacher walks in with another guy. Mami completely falls for this new guy, named Imawaka, who is going to a be a student teacher. He introduces himself and asks everyone to call him "Waka-sama". That's just... wrong... Anyway, Mami gets up and removes her elastic to show off her long hair. This is a big case, Mami's heart has been stolen!

Suugaku Joshi Gakuen Ep 8

5 episodes left to watch and review! I wonder what math problems are waiting to be solved. :3

This episode starts out with Nina and Sayuri fighting. Supposedly, Sayuri threw the mentaiko bread to Nina, but it ended up flying out of the window instead. Sayuri was just trying to help, but Nina is upset with her. Sayuri ends up saying a whole bunch of mean things about Nina and Nina says Sayuri should apologize to the god of mentaiko. ^_^" (Even though her bread was safe and sound on the window ledge. @.@) Since Sayuri stormed off, Kazuki runs after her and ends up following Sayuri into the "Elite Area". Sayuri wants Nina to apologize to her, but doesn't at the same time since that would be so unlike Nina and Sayuri doesn't want to see that kind of Nina. (What complicated feelings, eh?)

Once Sayuri actually lifts her head and clears her mind a bit, she realizes that they are in forbidden territory, but Kazuki is confused. They try to leave, but get caught in the process by 3 elite students, who are Yotsuya Yuko (played by Hagiwara Mai from ºC-ute), Komaba Satoko (played by Nakajima Saki, also from ºC-ute) and Mita Tomoko (played by Okai Chisato, also from ºC-ute --> This means that all members from ºC-ute have been featured in Suugaku Joshi Gakuen!)

These elite students have classical music playing behind them and lift their glasses with their index finger one by one, saying how they don't permission to be in this special area of the school. Kazuki is still confused and Sayuri begins to explain that the school is divided into Inner Circle and Outer Circle. The elites are part of the Inner Circle and they are very rich (get all the nice stuff: teachers, classrooms, etc), and everyone else is part of the Outer Circle. Because Sayuri wasn't able to explain why they were in their area, Sayuri and Kazuki get tied up. Satoko talks about how Sayuri may be helpful to them for the Intramural Math Battle, which pits the Inner Circle vs the Outer Circle students. Whichever side wins will be able to have additional classrooms, etc. When the elites find out that Kazuki is the "dumb transfer student", they let him go and Kazuki is extremely upset. 

Suugaku Joshi Gakuen Ep 7

I know that I'm really behind right now, but I'm slowly catching up one episode at a time, so let's go~

This episode starts off with Sayuri talking about how there are groups of first years that admire the older students such as the 4 girls from the Shibuya Police Squad who aspire to be like Mami, and the Gluttony girls who aspire to be like Fuyumi.

Nina also has her own fanclub called Team Nina, comprised of 3 girls named Hakkeijima Natsu, Daiba Aki and Maihama Haru. They look like 3 mini Ninas with the same clothes and hair and even eat Nina's favourite mentaiko bread too. They even try to imitate how Nina talks too. The male teacher notices the 3 and says that even though they admire Nina a lot, they should act like themselves, but Haru tells off the teacher in a Nina-esque way, getting praised by Natsu and Aki. The male teacher gives up and walks away. The 3 also have pictures of Nina that they walk around with. As they are heading to class, they end up noticing Nina just sleeping in the courtyard. Fangirl squee galore and debate whether they should talk to their most admired sempai.

The next day, Sayuri shows off her new smart phone. Kazuki replies saying that Sayuri loves to have new things. Nina doesn't care too much about it and Sayuri wonders why. The episode cuts to Team Nina where they are looking at their pictures of Nina and talking about her. They also wonder how can they get her cellphone number and email address. With their determination to get this information, they run over to Nina's class where they see Sayuri still trying to impress Nina with her smartphone and Nina is still not excited about it. Kazuki asks what kind of cellphone Nina uses, only to find out that she doesn't have one in the first place. Nina says that you don't need that fancy technology, but the truth comes out that she's just really bad with technology. She's had bad experiences where she can't seem to record her favourite shows or make photocopies. Everything seems to just "blow" up on her and stop working. ^_^" Kazuki and Sayuri can't stop laughing about it and dares to ask if she can use a computer. Nina says that once she touches a computer, it breaks. @.@ Team Nina can't believe that Nina knows nothing about how to use smart phones, tablets or even computers and says that Nina is so old-fashioned.

Movie Review: The Hunger Games

Hey everyone!

I'm finally done with my exams!!! Yay! *party party* So to celebrate, I finally went to see the Hunger Games movie. If you follow my Twitter, you may have known that I read the entire trilogy over winter break. I never had a chance to blog post about my thoughts on the books though. ^_^" When I saw all the ads for this movie, I just had to see it. Visually, it was totally living up to my expectations, so I was excited to watch this movie.

I should have known from the first 30 seconds that they chopped off a lot of stuff. A LOT. The movie begins with text explaining the "Reaping", which is when each of the 12 districts of Panem (country that this movie is situated in) have to give up one girl and one boy as tribute that are between the ages of 12 and 18. Now hold the bus. Because I've read the book, I know exactly what's going on. To those who have not read the book, they are just thrown in to an important scene with zero background info on the characters, their relationships, and the initial setting that all this is taking place in. Honestly, when they made this movie, they literally gave you the bare bones to be able to tell the story. They even changed how Katniss gets the Mockingjay pin. In the book, she gets it from the District 12's mayor's daughter, but in the movie, she randomly sees a stack of them while exchanging some goods for buttons. They removed a key element that is actually pretty important later on in the trilogy, but I guess they didn't want to spend any time with that  part of the story. 

Suugaku Joshi Gakuen Ep 6

I actually watched this episode when it came out, but I didn't have the time to blog about it at the time. I'll try to stick to the main part of the episode and not any side conversations. So here we go~

In this episode, a new transfer student (that was seen at the end of the previous episode) appears named Harajuku Tomoko (played by Tsugunaga Momoko, the member who is known to have a burikko character from the group Berryz Koubou), who has a very frilly school uniform. She has her own footstep sound effects and she does Momoko's famous "Yurishite nyan~" move. 

Tomoko: Yurushite nyan~

She does this because she is "apologizing" that she is now the most beautiful and cutest girl in class, which gets Sayuri upset. She continues to say that she is a genius, despite coming from a normal high school, all while in her over-the-top cute voice and mannerisms. Kazuki notices that the way Tomoko acts and says things is just like Sayuri and comes to the conclusion that Tomoko is Sayuri's shorter double. ^_^" He then notices how pissed Sayuri is and freaks out and so does everyone else with Mami going "jiken yo".

Sayuri: A rival? Pshh. 

Mami: Jiken yo!

Tomoko pushes it to the max trying to get everyone to call her "Tomochi" like little puppies. She then says that she's "kawaii nyan~". Sayuri is just growling at her like a lion on the inside. The atmosphere is tense. 

MIA for 4 Weeks

Hey~ As some of you may have noticed, I kind of disappeared for a month. ^_^" This was because I was extremely busy with studying for midterms this past month and I had no time to do any blogging or make any videos (or even watch Suugaku Joshi Gakuen T_T). 

The Thursday that just passed was the climax for all of the studying I had been doing the weeks before hand. When I knew the schedule of my classes and when midterms would be, I was dreading March 8 because I knew that it would be the toughest school day I had ever faced. I had 2 midterms scheduled on this day and because it was a Thursday, I also had a lab to deal with. Because of the midterm conflicts, I was able to write one of my midterms in the morning, but it would be a very long day nonetheless.

This is how that day went: 

5:00 AM - Wake up, shower, eat breakfast and study 

6:15 AM - Head to school with my school bag filled with snacks, green tea, notes for my 2 midterms and my lab stuff 

7:00 AM - Write my first midterm 

8:30 AM - Finished my first midterm and went to buy 2 sandwiches, which will be my lunch and supper 

9:00 AM - Studied for my second midterm at the cafeteria and ate my first sandwich 

11:30 AM - Climbed a hill to get to the library. It's also the same building where my lab class is located. I had to wait outside for 15 mins because the building was evacuated and closed because of a chemical spill that caused a fire. 

11:45 AM - Headed to the library to prep for my lab. Struggled with the library printer. Studied some more for my second midterm. Headed to the lab with my lab partner. 

1:30 PM - Working on an experiment in the lab (which I'll eventually have to write a lab report on, which takes 20+ hours to do @.@) 

5:30 PM - Lab finished an hour earlier than usual. Headed to the building where my second midterm is held and studied some more with my friend. Ate half of my second sandwich. 

6:30 PM - Write my second midterm and I also finished the rest of my sandwich during the midterm

8:00 PM - Freedom! 

8:30 PM - Watched Big Bang Theory and passed out on the couch. 

I can't believe I survived it. The days leading up to it were very tiring and difficult to get through. Even though I can "relax" now, I still have quite a few things left to do before exams start, but at least I'm over that mountain. ^_^" I should be blogging in the next week and possibly do a video if I have enough time in between catching up and studying for all my classes, so please look forward to that. 

Also during this month I was away, I did a lot of thinking concerning what am I going to do after I graduate.

Suugaku Joshi Gakuen Ep 5

My weekly dose of math in a j-drama. ^-^

This episode starts out with Kazuki reading a letter that he's writing to students at Edogawa high school about his time at this math school that he's in. He says that everyday of the 3 weeks he's been at this math school have been bright and he's met classmates that are very special to him. He also says that all the girls are cute, so he's been having fun everyday. But that's honestly not what's been happening (seeing flashbacks) and he wants to go back to his old school. 

Kazuki finds the male teacher and asks him to help him transfer to a super normal school. He can't handle all the math and the girls. The male teacher says that Kazuki should just find love, since he can freely love any girl while the male teacher can't. He also says that it would be a pain to transfer him to another school. 

Kazuki is moping again until a girl named Yuri (played by Suzuki Airi from ºC-ute) comes up to him and says "Hi" and asks if he's gotten used to the school yet. She then says some math stuff that he doesn't understand. But then she says that she thinks she's fallen in love with him and that she'll love him (Aishiteruzo~). Kazuki is in shock. Nina comes in and notices this and says that if Yuri likes him, then they should just go out, but Kazuki will still be Nina's servant during school hours. 

Kazuki then stalks Yuri to find out what she's saying about him. The other girls are giddy with her for confessing her love. Sayuri finds it gross that Kazuki is just staring. Kazuki asks who Yuri is and Sayuri says that she's Uehara Yuri and she has a cute angel character. Kazuki makes a pun about Yuri being cute (because she's from the group ºC-ute, he also did this with Mami in episode 2). Sayuri tells Kazuki to be careful because Yuri is so pure and will go out with him, but might throw him out if she confesses to some other person. 

The male teacher calls for homeroom and says that he's going to switch up the assigned seating to freshen up a bit later on in the day.

Suugaku Joshi Gakuen Ep 4

Onwards to a review of episode 4!

In episode 4, it starts out with Nina freaking out because she can't find her mentaiko bread and accuses Kazuki of stealing it (ah yes, the Kazuki accusations never end). Of course, Kazuki didn't do it and they both end up yelling at each other until Aoyama Iroha (played by Kikkawa Yuu, Hello! Project Egg graduate and is now currently a soloist under Universal Music Japan, but still part of Up-Front, the company in charge of Hello! Project), who is the head of the Morality Squad, tells them to stop fighting like kids and that Kazuki should cut his hair because it's not manly and supposedly long hair on a man is against the school rules. Kazuki is scared and freaked out, but Nina continues to be angry and badmouths Iroha. 

Kazuki is so mad at Nina that he heads over to the old school building, and notices Sayuri in the building. He tries to creep away, but steps on some leaves and Sayuri notices him, but didn't notice that she noticed and  keeps walking. Sayuri had eaten some of Nina's mentaiko bread and it gave her a stomach ache, causing her to need to do a #2 and she finds it too un-idol-like, which is why she is at the old school building, so she can do her business without anyone knowing. Kazuki ends up writing a whole bunch of mean things on the blackboard about Nina to vent out his anger. Kazuki, in the classroom, and Sayuri, in the washroom, both hear the sound of a window breaking. 

The next day, the class is assembled to bring up the fact that a window had been broken in the old school building, an indication that it must have been vandalized. Two girls quickly point out that Sayuri and Kazuki were both at the old school building. Mami senses that this is a case and decides to handle it, until Iroha gets the other 2 members of the Morality Squad to drag Mami out. Iroha, who is now in charge, asks Sayuri and Kazuki why there were at the old school building, but neither one of them want to say why because Sayuri doesn't want anyone to know that an "idol" like herself uses the washroom, even more so does a #2. Kazuki doesn't want to say anything because he technically did do some vandalism and doesn't want anyone to find out what he wrote on the blackboard. Iroha assumes their silence as being guilty. Nina stands up for them saying that there was no way that they did it. Kazuki and Sayuri both appreciate the sentiment, but they are in this predicament because of Nina. ^_^"  So, Sayuri and Kazuki are both placed in separate enclosed rooms and are forced upon the "Prisoner's Dilemma", where accusing the other will cause them less consequences than staying silent.