Tuesday, January 26, 2010

after reading from the random manga Ane Doki, i went to find a similar manga by the same author and found this : Ichigo 100% ... just finished the manga and anime together recently and i'll say that it was a great storyline and plot. the story slowly and gradually became more serious with the last few chapters being exceptionally touching, had almost teared at chapter 163 too =X

it is a pretty old manga but heres the plot anyway (from wiki)

Strawberry 100% chronicles the school years of Junpei Manaka, a high school student and aspiring movie director, and his relationships with the girls that enter his life. At the start of the series, he encounters a mystery girl with strawberry-print panties, who he quickly becomes intrigued with. Hoping to find her, he finds the notebook of Aya Toujou nearby, who turns out to be an ordinary-looking girl. However, he soon discovers that Aya is a gifted writer, and the two become friends. Meanwhile, he believes the mystery girl to be Tsukasa Nishino, the most popular girl in his school. The two soon start a relationship together. However, he eventually realises Tsukasa is not the mystery girl he had been searching for, but chooses to continue their relationship. During his entrance exam for his desired high school, Izumimaka High, he discovers that Aya is in fact the mystery girl. On his first day, he meets a feisty girl named Satsuki Kitaoji, whom he later discovers to be his classmate. The two gradually become friends and Satsuki eventually falls in love with him. Junpei starts a film club with Aya, Satsuki, a new classmate, the girl-crazed Hiroshi Sotomura, and two of his high school friends. Later Yui Minamito, an old childhood friend, reenters his life, around the same time Tsukasa grows impatient and breaks up with him, although their relationship later develops once more and they become good friends. During the three years in senior high school, different incidences happen between Manaka and the girls and Manaka remains indecisive about who to declare his love for. Several other characters also came into the picture. It is only during the last year in senior high school, when one of the girls confessed to him, that he finally made his decision.

the very 1st chapter really did make me think that this manga was going to be like "XXX" and had a very unique way of starting the whole story. well, excluding the er... X parts of the story, this manga was just great. from the start, i had guessed that at the end, Junpei would be with Aya since that was what he had wanted but after seeing how Tsukasa and Junpei were as a couple and the things they had went through together, i did hope for them to be together in the end and was well rewarded with chapter 167... reunion at last after 4 years :) of course, many other characters did come and could have moved Junpei, i believed that Aya and Tsukasa were the only characters that had a larger impact on Junpei himself. For Aya and Junpei, they did shared the dream of making movies togther but Aya was more keen on writing novels and Junpei was more interested in making movies. More importantly, it did took Aya quite some time, nearing the end of the manga, before she did confess to Junpei, but she do know that it was already too late as Junpei already and always has, chosen Tsukasa. For Junpei and Tsukasa, it was Junpei who confessed to her and their feelings grew but when they went to different high schools and Tsukasa broke up with him sometime later. Junpei does not seem to want to forget about Tsukasa and Tsukasa herself still thought about Junpei and kinda regretted breaking up with him, after some time. Then, Tsukasa confessed to Junpei this time round, and in the same way as Junpei had confessed to her in the past. However, they broke up again once Tsukasa was soon going overseas to try and grasp her own dream. It was only then, in chapter 167, that Junpei and Tsukasa were reunited after four years and Junpei asked her once again if she would like to go out with him once more. A wonderful ending with the time-skip indeed :) Well... for Satsuki, she had loved Junpei but i do not see Junpei seeing her in the same light too, the two of them just doesnt seem right i guess, personally, i would have wanted Satsuki to be put together with Amachi =X After seeing how Aya talked with Junpei in chapter 163, and how he and she had cried after that, i really felt touched... after all, it was a hundred and sixty three chapter build-up of feelings, both Junpei and Aya, ever since he saw her on the rooftop on the very 1st chapter. Kozue could have been placed as a competitor in the later part of the story but i guess she had liked Junpei as he was the only guy she was comfortable around, she does have a unique personality too... Would have loved it if the anime had shown the movies that Junpei and the others had created, i was super interested in the movie whereby there was a scene where Tsukasa was running beside a train and smiling and that, was a scene from the movie i'll loved to see it being animated. The anime didnt show much though, although they had shown the breaking up between Tsukasa and Junpei but that part could have been extended since the next episode showed Junpei all alright and lively again which he should not have been, the manga did show him cry after him realising that making Tsukasa wait for him had accidentally hurt her. i wanted the anime to end with the time-skip chapter but they didnt introduced much characters but ended with the scene of filming Tsukasa, in the movie where theres the scene of her running beside the train. there were much "un-needed" parts in the manga but nonetheless, the story plot, the way the story progressed, the way there showed Junpei slowly maturing and the moving forward of the relationship of Junpei and Tsukasa was just fantastic and it had definitely, in 100%, moved me :) thumbs UP for a great and touching manga :D

there isnt really much storyline behind Sora no Woto but i just do not get bored watching it, beats me... the series does seem to have something mysterious in it, just IMO i guess...

K-ON! 14, a special episode, was just like any other typical episode, with full of fun, joy and laughter, the episode was on the K-ON! band moving to a live at a live house and performed there with the other bands and did attracted qutie a lot of audience as well... did LOL-ed when Ritsu wanted to write the spotlight to shine on the bassist when she trips... looking forward to their 2nd season =)

here are just some wonderful vids :)

R-type song sang by Miku =D R-type FTW <3, (addicted to the mobile game =X quite a long ago though...)



and the energetic ending song for Ichigo 100%: