Absolute Duo

"After losing a loved one, Tooru Kokonoe enrolls at Kouryou Academy so as to gain a "Blaze," a weapon that is his soul manifestation, for the sake of revenge. He was expecting a weapon... What he got was a shield... How is he to seek revenge with something that isn't even a weapon?!" - Anime Ultima.

On the first day of a special school, Tooru meets an innocent looking girl and is instantly intrigued. Sounds like every school anime, you say? Well... It is. Kinda. It has loads of action but it is also harem based too. 

Tomoe and Julie

Tor (Tooru) and Julie both have dark pasts, and they seek revenge for it, but everyone at this school seems to have a reason to be here. Many have a background in martial arts, and in the first day, they are told to fight each other. 

The school has a dark reason for even existing, which is only touched on in the middle and a small explanation is given at the end. 

I liked it, there are enough answers to be satisfied with the anime's existence but there are still enough questions for a season two to come out.  It's not as pervy as some anime's to the point of being annoying, and the plot is both cliché and intriguing. However, like with a lot of anime recently (possible due to my own personal circumstances) I have not felt upset if I don't watch the latest episode straight away. The art style appear to be cute and aimed at a younger audience to begin with, but you quickly realise this is not the case and it is not suitable for your four year old niece.

Tor and Julie

There are plenty of busty girls to go around, even the teacher is a little unorthodox in her appearance and teaching style. But it is worth the watch. High School of the Dead is the closest anime I can think of right now, so I highly recommend this if you've seen that.

Unconditional love,

Cazzie x 

Black Rock Shooter

8 EPISODES!? Only 8 episodes?

I think this is the shortest series I've ever watched, excluding OVAs, and obviously, it was watched in one session with my friend.

A little fetish escaping into anime?

Can I just say, that by the time I finally realised what was going on in the first and second episodes, and how they related both parts of the story, they introduced a new character to confuse me again. Also, the graphics are amazing. Not just the art, but how they created half of the scenes using 3D animations techniques, and then converted this to the 2D anime we all know and love.

Two worlds co-exist and take on the 'pain' of that world. Black Rock Shooter (yes, that is her name) lives in a world without emotional pain, but solves everything with violence. Her very existence is a battle to stay alive in a world that would no make sense to us. To cope with this world, she can transform her arm into a canon to aid her efforts.

Mato and Yomi

Meanwhile, Mato Kuroi is a middle-school student trying to reach out to befriend a classmate who keeps pushing her away. Although there is a reason for her classmate Yomi Takanashi to stay alone, Mato does not give up easily. This makes her school life a little more complicated than it used to be.

But, how do these two worlds relate? Why is survival for Black Rock Shooter more intense, action packed and filled to the brim with danger? Why does she literally have to fight to survive?

Alone, as two separate anime series, Mato's story would be too ordinary to be labeled a series in it's own right, and Black Rock Shooter's story would seem too action filled, without a break to be decent. However, the way they interlink and contrast each other make this a fantastic series to watch. A balance of calm and desperation, the way other characters interfere, and the difference in drawing styles to match each world.
I have found a stark contrast in reviews, a number of low scores equal to a number of high scores make this anime just like Marmite. Love it or hate it, at least give it a try. :)

Vocaloid (Hatsune Miku) and Black Rock Shooter. Not the image which inspired the song.

* * This started off as a drawing, turned into a music video sung by Hatsune Miku, and then an anime and film adaptation. Please note, I have only seen the anime series and not the film which is classed as the OVA at 52 minutes. (myanimelist.net) * *

Unconditional love,
Cazzie x

Blood Lad

Arrgh, I've taken so long to write this review that I forgot about it, hahaha.

Do you like anime? Do you like japanese culture? Of course you do :) ! Now... do you like humans, obsess over them? Mayyyybe....
You may be just like Staz then, the protagonist of this anime. Staz is a vampire, not the twinkle in sunlight kind, the original blood sucking, nocturnal kind.
Fuyumi is a human. See where this is going? Does Staz fall head over heels in love with the human girl and marry her to have little human-vampire babies? Or does he turn her into a vampire? Neither really.

Episode 1: Fuyumi enters the demon world by mistake, where she meets Staz. Staz, being completely obsessed with humans, vows to protect her while escorting her back to the human world and asking a billion questions about life there. However, there's a territory war going on outside and Staz is forced to defend his place. That's when the invader manages to kill Fuyumi. Staz returns to his room and finds her remains and clothing, along with a giant deadly plant. This is where Staz finds the ghost of Fuyumi and vows to bring her back to life.

Proceed with the rest of the series. If you like vampires, werewolves, annoying siblings who literally want to kill you, and fight scenes, this may be for you. This is actually light-hearted, with many puns and jokes to contrast with the apparent dark nature this is based on. Seriously though, doesn't the above sound a bit like a horror movie? But the clueless nature of some of the characters make it hard not to laugh.

Fuyumi and Staz. Are these glasses fashionable yet?

And don't worry, there are plenty of large breasts for you pervs out there ;3 I have you covered. Did I mention that a vampire and werewolf are best friends? :O I know right, this definitely isn't Twilight. I think I should shut up now.

Unconditional love,
Cazzie x

K

What is this, Cazzie? Why is there a random letter for a title? Where have you been?

I have been under the recent pressure of finding a house to live in so that I can return to university later this month. Hence not uploading any more reviews (that, and I currently have 3/4 ongoing series to watch that are not yet completed and will all finish around the time I start classes again). I had a guarantor for a house, my papa, but he failed the checks due to 'circumstances unrelated to money'. Like really? He's a landlord and, even out of the country, still earns enough to cover my rent if needs be. But, whatever...

Now to answer the second question, well, second... 'K' is not just some random letter. Yes, it may be near the middle of the alphabet, or used to express that something is 'okay' but that is not why it is posted. IT'S TIME FOR.... (drumroll please).... ANOTHER ANIME REVIEW!

*      *      *      *      *

Meet Yashiro 'Shiro' Isana.

Firstly, can an anime title get any more ambiguous? I didn't see one letter 'K' floating around, nor did they mention it in the series. This series has two alternative titles as well, very similar in nature though: Project K and K Project. This makes a little more sense further into the 13 episode series.

It follows the protagonist over roughly a week of his life, in which he finds out that he is soon to be killed. What is doesn't know is; what for? Once he does find out that it is for the murder of another person, he barters for his life on several occasions, buying more time. This proves difficult with highly reliable evidence and more than one person or group wanting to take his life. However, for a fairly popular person at school, proving an alibi gets increasingly difficult as more and more students forget about him. The more he thinks about and questions his life, the more things get complicated.

If this wasn't hard enough for any viewer to understand, in come the other characters. There are 7 clans, each with their own king, a ranking, specific traits and a colour (only six are mentioned or shown which leaves one clan and king completely unknown). Oh, and these clans do not work together with or for the human race (as humans do not know about them), but against each other, having battles and wars often and with mixed reactions. So, imagine having two clans after Shiro, one to presumably lock him up, and the other to take his life.

Neko

Kuroh Yatogami

But, it's time to also meet two other important characters, Kuroh and Neko. Neko is, you guessed it, a cat. I mean, if you like having cats turn into naked human girls, I'm not judging ;3 Oh, and she sees Shiro as her pet, not the other way around...
Kuroh is not only dark in name, but seemingly in nature too. A relentless fighter who is creepily attached to his king.



As much as I loved this series, (I'm a bit ill today, not sick but in pain, so this is when I watched it), there are some flaws. I took a little while to get certain aspects of it, I think it was episode 9 or 10 when my sister mentioned Neko's real reason for being around, but I didn't get it until after they had explained it on screen.
One character reminded me of Hitler, even though I believe this is set in a different world to our own. There was a scene set in the past, Berlin, and they spoke in German, running experiments which ran into the line; 'superhuman race'. Oh, and his first name is Adolf.

I really did enjoy this series, found some parts funny either due to the comedy or because it would remind me of something else. I just don't know what took me so long to hear about and watch this. Once again, any reviews I write are my recommendations and you should take a look too. I don't write negative reviews because that would mean I dislike something, and I don't watch things I dislike. This series borders on dark anime, and for some reason, that's all I'm watching this season. I did have more criticisms for the end, but I forgot (can't be that bad then, right?) so if I remember, I'll post them later and at the end. Have a great time.

Unconditional love,
Cazzie x

Monochrome Factor

I actually watched this alone and over a longer period, but ah well.

This 24-episode anime series is full of deceit. In fact, the deceit is deceitful :O

So, there's this slacker, Akira, who must return to his school one night with classmates where they get attacked by shadow monsters. Up comes a (full of himself) stranger, who explains that the balance between light and dark is becoming unbalanced and so turns Akira into a 'Shin'. Shirogane (the stranger) then fights alongside Akira against the shadow monsters. Full of mystery, light shonen-ai themes and plenty of action, this is a definite recommendation.

Will you figure out where the lies begin and the truth ends? Let's wait and see.

Unconditional love,
Cazzie x

Wolf Children

Not the best film out there, but it was pretty funny.

So the story is about two little children whose father is a werewolf. For various reasons (you can find out by watching this film), the dad is not on the scene, so it centres around the mother (definitely human) who has the struggle of raising two little children who randomly turn into wolves.
As you can imagine, this is difficult in any location, and it shows the sacrifices she has to make for the safety of her kids. It's quite heartwarming, and the children seem to switch their ways around a little. It has funny moments, and sad times.

If you like werewolves, talking animals and family centred films, this is for you. :)

Unconditional love,
Cazzie x

Don't You Get It?

Just a little rant/story of today.

So I was in university (as usual) and this guy in my lecture spoke to me between that and our seminar, and we ended up buying a smoothie down the road. He paid for it and everything, but the longer I spoke to him, the more I thought he was into me..
We got back in the building and had ten minutes to spare, so we spoke some more. He was thrilled to find out about where my family come from, and his family is from a neighboring country. Then we somehow spoke about the 'guys' I'm into. I never outright said that I'm not currently into guys (and maybe I should have), but I did mention Korea and Japan a lot. Then he invited me out for dinner Thursday. Now, I'm used to just going out for dinner with friends casually, so I agreed.

I'm pretty sure everyone knows about my love for G Dragon.

We went to our respective rooms and I later saw him on my way back from lunch. The hugged me and went to (I assume) kiss my lips but I moved so he caught my cheek. He checked that I would text him later today (whoops, I forgot until I typed that), and we left at that as he was going home, and I had work to go through.

This gets me thinking. If I say I'm *only* into East Asian Guys (exclude girls for a second), and you're half Jew/ half African, then I'm not interested.

Also, is this now a date?!

I'm so clueless about these things..

Unconditional love,
Cazzie x

Anime

Do I watch too much anime? Well..... Is there such a thing? ;3

Probably. This is procrastination at its best. And considering the amount of work I have to do, this list is a bit much. Since starting back at uni at the beginning of the month, I have watched:
Pandora Hearts
Yumikui Merry
Special A
Mayo Chiki
Kaichou wa Maid-sama!
Mirai Nikki
Spiral: Suiri no Kizuna
Loveless
11eyes

Yumekui Merry

Special A - Sakura

Spiral

Loveless

11eyes

And I tried watching:
Starry Sky
To Love-Ru
Moonphase
Maria Holic
MM!
Yuru Yuri

So um... Maybe I started these around Christmas actually, the list seems a bit long for two weeks... Make that almost two months. :) And these are what I actually remember, my laptop history doesn't seem to go back very far...

How do you procrastinate? Do you watch anime too?

Unconditional love,
Cazzie x

J.Reyez

What can I really say?

He's Korean.

He's Canadian.

He's kinda cute.

I love his lyrics.

Rap/ Hip-hop is my all-time favourite genre.

I may have re-wrote the lyrics a little wrong as I did them from memory as soon as I got into class, and heard the song on my journey. Haha.

So I discovered J.Reyez years and years ago, when he did a parody of 'Like a G6' on Youtube (I believe it was something to do with a seagull?). Remember when that song came out? That's when I started listening to this guy. I don't know how, but he was already in my subscriptions so I started watching other videos.

This was long before my kpop obsession, as 3/4 years is fairly recent. I found him during my Canadian obsession. I've had a few obsessions over the years xD.

Anyway, I knew that he collaborated with Lydia Paek a lot in his albums, and she features in quite a lot of his videos too. Now, I didn't know she was with YG Entertainment until very late last year (as in, the last few days of December). And, best of all, she's even worked with G-Dragon a few times. <3

So jealous haha.

So J.Reyez raps about his life, and in a way he is a bit like Eminem. He does kpop covers in English, produces his own albums and songs, goes on tour and is quite successful now even if he isn't that famous to everyone. But he still has loads of fans.

I personally think he is quite inspirational as an artist and would love to meet him one day. Anyway, I've gone off topic, back on topic and probably make no sense right now, so this is goodbye.

Unconditional love,

Cazzie x

G-D & T.O.P

So I might be having a little obsession over G-Dragon and T.O.P!

Their music and fashion, and G-D's face and voice. OMG, I'm practically falling in love. So husky and smooth at the same time. I don't know how to explain it. I just love his voice.

I read an old interview last night about how he treats girls, whether he's dating them or not. He's like the perfect guy, and doesn't think twice about being a gentleman, it's just him.

I spent the entirety of last week (with the exception of when I wasn't able to gt on YouTube) going through all of their videos together.

Can I hug him now? Just a hug? A little one...

If I could meet GD, I would either fangirl so much, or pretend not to care and explode with happiness on the inside. I mean, his perfectly chiseled cheekbones and straight nose. It's probably all make up but I don't care.

And he's so quirky. I love his fluffy black hat,it goes almost everywhere with him. Oh and most importantly, his English is amazing :D *dies from excitement*

Unconditional love,

Cazzie x

I Miss Home

So Christmas season is upon us, and I am yet to go home and celebrate with my family even though university is over. I miss my bedroom so much, and the past couple of months have been too eventful, (I know I said I would post everything, but I haven't revealed the full story yet) but I wanted to share a couple of images of my room with you.

 I'm almost Japanese, haha. These are the kanji for 'star', 'water' and 'love'. I know the words seem an odd combination, but these are what I was taught at a japanese festival and my first ever attempt at writing kanji. The brush strokes may be a bit off, but if I keep practicing, I should get better. And I always have my japanese friend to help me :)

This is my name in katakana. It can be written two ways, and mine is supposed to have an extra symbol to show that the 'ri' part of my name is slightly longer, so Carina becomes 'カリーナ' and the 'i' is pronounced slightly longer than in my image. I just love how japanese is written, and so I have these in my bedroom to remind me of how happy east asians always are. They're always smiling, I don't think I've ever seen one sad.

This is all for now, I may show more snippets of my room later on (when I get bored).

Unconditional love,
Cazzie x

This is AMAZING!!!

So a couple of days ago, I found this and thought that I must share it with you.

There's a Korean photographer/artist called Jee Young Lee who creates wonderful scenes from her tiny studio room.

Each scene can take up to months to create, but I'm sure you'll think the time is worth it.

What's better is that she does not use Photoshop at all with any of these photographs. That's rare these days.

There are loads more if you just Google her name. So what do you think? Is the effort worth it?

I sure think so.

Unconditional love,
Cazzie x

I'm Trapped!

So my sister, Iris, showed me the Korean version of this which came out two months ago, and I really liked it. Shh, don't tell her ;) She over played it and I got sick of it in a few days...

Anyway, Henry has just released the ENGLISH version of his song and now I actually love it. It's a great example of why I prefer Korean music, despite the fact that this is in english. They don't sing about drugs, sex, and the rock 'n' roll lifestyle. They sing about things we can all relate to. Take a listen :) It's so catchy, but because I know the other version so well, it took me a while to figure out what he was singing and we had to find a lyric video.

Also, check out my sister's blog with her friend Lilley* at www.sokyutelike.blogspot.co.uk for more East Asian stuff.