Gibey's Extensive Anime Study (or How Gibey Spends His Boring Freeloading Days)

S.A. Copyright Maki Minami / Hakusensha / Gonzo x AIC

To give everyone an idea on just how much I'm into watching anime, here's a glimpse of my current anime "study", updated as of September 24, 2008:

Anime Downloads:

A. For Completion
1. Rental Magica 15-24
2. Aria the Natural 06-26
3. Ghost Hunt 12-25
4. Azumanga Daioh 16-24

B. Download Completed (as of 23 September 2008)
1. Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo! (24)
2. Lamune (12)
3. Nodame Cantabile (23)
4. Special A (24)

C. Ongoing Anime Downlaods
1. Itazura na Kiss 24 (ep 23 9/18/2008)
2. Telepathy Shoujo Ran 13 (ep 12 9/21/2008)
3. Wagaya no Oinari-sama 19 (ep 18 9/13/2008)
4. Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu 12 [FINAL] (ep 11 9/23/2008)
5. Naruto Shippuuden 076-077 [1-hour special - Japan airing 9/25/2008] (ep 075 9/12/2008)
6. Hidamari Sketch x365 09 (ep 08 9/3/2008)
7. Mission-E 06 (ep 05 9/16/2008)
8. Zettai Karen Children 24 (ep 23 9/19/2008)
9. Natsume Yuujinchou 12 (ep 11 9/19/2008)
10. Nabari no Ou 20 (ep 19 8/15/2008)
11. Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsuna Koto - Natsu no Sora 08 (ep 07 9/13/2008)
12. Chocolate Underground 08 (ep 07 9/21/2008)

D. For Consideration
1. Izumo: Takeki Tsurugi no Senki (finished - 12 episodes)
2. Shinigami no Ballad (finished - 7 episodes)

E. OP-ED Singles Downloads
1. Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsuna Koto - Natsu no Sora OP Single: Fly Away by Thyme (downloaded 8/11/2008)
2. Hidamari Sketch x 365 ED Single - Ryuusei Record by Marble (downloaded 8/15/2008)
3. Natsume Yuujinchou OP Single - Issei No Koe by Shuhei Kita (downloaded 8/28/2008)
4. Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsuna Koto - Natsu no Sora ED Single: Kawaita Hana by micc
(downloaded 9/10/2008)
5. Natsume Yuujinchou ED Single - Natsu Yuuzora by Kousuke Atari (downloaded 9/4/2008)
6. Telepathy Shoujo Ran ED Single - Polaris no Namida by Onsoku Line (Japan release: 9/24/2008)

F. Pending (downloads not yet completed)
1. Cluster Edge 05~ [26]
2. Genshiken Season 1 03~ [12 + OVA 01-03]
3. Suzuka 06~ [26]
4. Shounen Onmyouji 05~ [?]
5. Tetsuwan Birdy Decode 06~ [ongoing]
6. Ouran High School Host Club 03~ [26]
7. Vampire Knight 05-13
8. Detective Conan 05~ [ongoing]
9. Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn 05~ [ongoing]
10. Soul Eater 13~ [ongoing]
11. Ultra Maniac 05~ [26]
12. Nijuu-mensou no Musume 09-23 [ongoing]
13. Ichigo Mashimaro 07 [12]

G. Premieres (to be downloaded as soon as subs are released)
October 2008

PRIORITY DOWNLOADS:
1. Clannad ~Afterstory~ (Japan premiere 04 October 2008 - FD priority)
2. Nodame Cantabile: Paris Chapter (Japan premier 09 October 2008 - FD priority)
3. Skip Beat (Japan premiere 05 October 2008 - FD priority)

FOR CONSIDERATION:
1. Yozakura Quartet (Japan premier 02 October 2008)
2. ef ~a tale of melodies~ (Japan premier 09 October 2008)
3. Hyakko (Japan premiere 01 October 2008)
4. Shikabane Hime (Japan premiere 02 October 2008)

H. Anime Series Downloading Plans (for finished anime)

September
1. Nodame Cantabile (finished - DC)
2. Aria the Natural (finished - FC)
3. Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo (finished - DC)
4. Ghost Hunt (finished - FC)

October
1. Ghost Hound (finished - FD)
2. Vampire Knight (finished - FC)
3. Shigofumi (finished - FD)
4. Rental Magica (finished - FC)
5. Aishiteruze Baby (finished - FC)
6. Ouran High School Host Club (finished - FC)
7. Ichigo Mashimaro (finished - FC)

November
1. Azumanga Daioh (finished - FC)
2. Nijuu-mensou no Musume (finished - FC)

December
1. Aria the Origination (finished - FC)
2. Genshiken Season 1 (finished - FC)
3. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 (finished - FD)
4. Genshiken (finished - FC)
5. Lucky Star (finished - FC)

January 2009
1. Hatenkyou Yuugi (finished - FC)
2. Shounen Onmyouji (finished - FC)

Legend: FD - for download; FC - for completion; DC - download completed

I. File Replacements
1. Itazura na Kiss - to .avi: 01, 06, 09, 13-15, 19
2. special A - to .avi: 06, 13-16
3. Clannad - to .rmvb: 01-04, 24
4. Ghost Hunt - to .rm/.rmvb: 01, 02
5. Natsume Yuujinchou - to .mkv
6. Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu - to .rmvb
7. Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo - to .rmvb from .rm: 03, 04, 07
8. Telepathy Shoujo Ran - to .rmvb: 01, 02, 04 (from .rm), 07-10, 12

Anime Viewing Schedule - September 2008 to January 2009

Ongoing
1. Itazura na Kiss (ends October 2008)
2. Special A (ends September 2008)
3. Telepathy Shoujo Ran
4. Wagaya no Oinari-sama
5. Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (ends October 2008)
6. Naruto Shippuuden
7. Hidamari Sketch x365 09
8. Mission-E
9. Zettai Karen Children
10. Natsume Yuujinchou
11. Nabari no Ou
12. Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsuna Koto ~Natsu no Sora~

Premieres

October
1. Clannad ~Afterstory~ (priority)
2. Nodame Cantabile: Paris Chapter (priority)
3. Skip Beat (priority)
4. Yozakura Quartet (for consideration)
5. ef ~a tale of melodies~ (for consideration)
6. Hyakko (for consideration)
7. Shikabane Hime (for consideration)

Finished

September
1. Nodame Cantabile (replay)
2. Aria the Animation (replay)
3. REC (replay)
4. Kimikiss Pure Rouge (replay)
5. Shakugan no Shana II
6. Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo
7. Hitohira (replay)

October
1. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion
2. Ghost Hunt
3. Amatsuki
4. Vampire Knight
5. Shigofumi (replay)
6. Ghost Hound
7. Rental Magica
8. ef ~a tale of memories~ (replay)

November
1. Lamune
2. Spiral
3. Itazura na Kiss (replay)
4. Aria the Natural (replay)
5. Azumanga Daioh
6. Nijuu-mensou no Musume
7. Aishiteruze Baby

December
1. Ouran High School Host Club (replay)
2. sola (replay)
3. true tears (replay)
4. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (replay)
5. Special A (replay)
6. Spice and Wolf

January 2009
1. Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 (priority)
2. Hatenkyou Yuugi
3. Shounen Onmyouji
4. Lucky Star
5. Aria the Origination (replay)
6. Genshiken Season 1 (replay)

Note Some of those marked replay are those I watched before but got erased when my PC broke down last April.

SM City Marikina ni Youkoso!

"The future of shopping begins now...", so the poster says.

To find out if shopping really has a good future in this one, I personally visited SM City Marikina, the latest addition to the SM mall empire with n malls as of late (where the value of n seems to become a very large natural number :p).

The mall officially opened last September 5, but I got to take a look at the next day, September 6. And, whoa, there were so may people inside! Well, it was not just because of the Filipinos' innate curiosity for something new (especially that it IS an SM Mall, heck), but at that time there was a mall show for the movie I.T.A.L.Y. by GMA Films (huh? meron palang pelikulang ganu'n? :O) and they expected to see Jolly Jolina and Emperador, err, Mr. Generoso Dennis Trillo among other not-so-known wards of GMA Artist Center (Go Star Circle XD).

Ehem. Anyway, I got to explore each floor, including a look a peek of the Department Store, the Supermarket, and the spacious Cyberzone, and I got to take some pictures of the interior of the mall (see the album of my photos in my Multiply Site). And surprisingly, SM did not go for a soft opening since almost ALL shops were already open. I then remembered when SM Bacoor opened and only the Department Store and Supermarket were opened then.

Now, what can I say about the mall? Interior-wise, it's okay, with good lighting and interior designs, although there are some dim parts. I liked the spacious entrance lobby the most as well as the glass part of the facade. The Supermarket is also spacious and well-lit, as exprected from a newly-opened supermarket. I still need to explore the Cinemas (with good exterior designs, by the way).

There are some downsides, though, about the mall. One, it's a small mall (pardon the intended onomatopoeia there). For a mall which spang somewhere-out-there near the Marikina River, one can't expect a grandoise mall like SM North or something. Also, you can't go around it since the there is only one aisle per floor - with four floors in all - so you can only go back and fourth (an exception is the Cyberzone which is on the left side of the mall and perpendicular to the first floor aisle). Also, the Food Court was unusually placed on the fourth floor - on ONE SIDE of the mall - and you can only see SIX food stalls in the Food Court! Another thing is that there was NO taxi stand! You need to hail a taxi outside the mall with those waiting for jeepneys. I remmbered horridly when my girlfirend and I went nuts after waiting for hours for a taxi with dozens of other people when we shopped there for groceries last September 8 and was caught in the thunderstorm inside the mall. And finally, as expected, it always create a traffic bottleneck between Katipunan and the Santolan LRT station.

Well, relatively SM City Marikina is fairly good as a small a compared to some. Many of the drawbacks can be improved upon in the days to come so I can still give the mall a chance to see those improvements in the future. At least there is a mall nearer my rented place here in Santolan and I don't need to go Cubao, Megamall, Sta. Lucia, or Robinsons East to buy something.

Has the future of shopping really begun in Marikina? Let's see in the coming months.

(For comments and suggestions regarding this blog post, please feel free to speak your mind in the Comments section)

More Moe~ - Anime News Network's Take on the Moe Word

Well, still on moe...

While searching for some anime facts in the Anime News Network website, I chanced upon a side banner about a discussion about the word I featured in this blog before: moe (see the blog entry Moe...? posted 3 September 2008). The staff of the Chicks on Anime section of the website had an informal yet informative discussion among themselves about the word otakus are accustomed of.

Rather than copy the entire entry from their website (which might give me a reason to be accused of copyright infringement), you can check the title link of this blog entry.

Moe~ ^__^

The "Yahoo! Answers" Notoriety Strikes Back: The Search for "Yozakura Quartet"

Here's another rant on the ever-useful and intelligent site called Yahoo! Answers....

While I'm wasting, erm, spending my free time surfing the Net in my suking internet shop
here in Pasig, an upcoming anime series titled Yozakura Quartet tickled my fancy and decided to look forward to its release by October (the Japan premiere is on October 2 to be aired on TBS). Another download spree for the bum otaku sensei :p

Now, since it's still a long wait, I decided to search for a possible scanlated copy of the
manga. It's a deviation from my usual routine of just watching an anime but not reading the
manga. or watching the anime first before stumbling upon a manga volume to read. Well, I
also want to read something in my spare time, and I want to peek at the possible story line
in advance.

The "googling" did not help - there's no site in sight for scanlated downlaods, and I'm just
not that patient in reading all those repeating or nonsense search results. But what catched
my attention is a result pointing me to the famous Yahoo! Answers site. As everyone
connected to me via Multiply knows, I aready ranted about the quality of the answers given
by users - especially those who are considered 'top contributors'. (See my blog Blog Entry Does Yahoo! Answers REALLY Answer (Correctly)? dated June 2, 2008). Even if I still hated that site until now, I still decided to check on that entry just for kicks, especially that it's related to Yozakura Quartet.

As I expect, I just got myself lots of (imaginary) sweatdrops, pain pricks, and an upset stomach.

The resolved question posted by Kyle Dreamin' is this: (from http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080503000336AANHIVD)

Where can i read Yozakura Quartet online?

I want to find out where i can read Yozakura Quartet online, or at least download it. Yozakura Quartet is a manga by Suzuhito Yasuda.

• 4 months ago

Additional Details

4 months ago

I want to find out where i can read Yozakura Quartet online, or at least download it.

Edit : i think my question must be wrongly described. "Yozakura Quartet" is not a novel. It's a manga (japanese comic).

Well, it seems that we both have the same predicament. Now, brace yourself for the BEST answer, provided by Rita T., a supposed TOP CONTRIBUTOR. Here's her repsonse:

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

The Gutenberg Project has tens of thousands of books available for free download in pdf

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/main_page....

If, by chance, there is something you can't find there... then one of my English professors gave me this site, which is basically the same thing and was put together by the University of Pennsylvania:

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/lis...

All copyrighted material is illegal to download. Here are some sites that have non-copywrited material for reading:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/bro...
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/...
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/
http://www.baen.com/library/
http://www.ebooks3.com/
http://www.hismercy.ca/content/hm_ebooks...
http://www.bookyards.com/
http://www.redbirdstudio.com/e_books/...
http://www.free-online-novels.com/...
http://www.bibliomania.com/1/frameset.ht...
http://www.starry.com/novel/authors.htm....
http://www.bygosh.com/features.htm...
http://www.bygosh.com/thebestnovels.htm....
http://www.bookspot.com/ask/
http://www.bookspot.com/

But I would try the Gutenberg Project first. I think their collection is more extensive.

• 4 months ago

My gulay! Her answer is deceptively intelligent, but what pissed me is this simple thing: SHE DID NOT REALLY ANSWER THE QUESTION. And worse, someone named coycholla gave a rejoinder:

Sorry, but the short answer is "you can't." Books published since 1923 are protected by copyright which won't allow them to be made available for free online. (Otherwise why would anyone buy the book? Publishers would go out of business). I'd suggest stopping by the library or bookstore tomorrow and get your hands on the paper.

• 4 months ago

Source(s):

"The Online Books Page," U. of Pennyslvania, http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/okb...

There goes the two "smart" beings who tried - but actually FAILED - to ANSWER a very SIMPLE question.

Now, here is my comment on the answers they gave (originally broken into 3 posts since the limit is 300 characters only):

I'm impressed by the "scholarly" answers you gave, especially the one who's supposedly a "top contributor". But, as I read it, THE QUESTION WAS NOT ACTUALLY ANSWERED! Manga (considered as the Japanese equivalent of a comic book) is actually DIFFERENT from a novel or an ordinary book. I actually checked most of the links myself and I expected that I won't find a single MANGA there.

Some fan sites upload scanlated (that is, scanned and translated) manga titles. However, I have yet to see one with Yozakura Quartet (I'm searching for one myself). If you really want to read it, you might need to buy it either online, in a bookstore, or an anime specialty store.

I would have loved to include this part, but I decided to delete it because it might offend the two "smarty pants":

"But I would try the Gutenberg Project first. I think their collection is more extensive." Extensive you say? I didn't find "Yozakura Quartet" or even "Naruto" there! Next time, please read the question very carefully before answering!

For everyone's information, I actually TRIED to search Yozakura Quartet using those links, but, as I expected, nothing happened. Well, so much for her English professor's churva :p

I just hope that one day those who use Yahoo! Answers will give intelligent answers - not really the scholarly ones, but just those that, um, makes sense. And I hope they READ the question first before answering.....

Moe....?

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