One of my favorite mangakas Kawashita Mizuki, mangaka of the popular Strawberry 100% (いちご100%) and Hatsukoi Limited (初恋限定) along with the lesser known Lilim Kiss (りりむキッス), has a new manga currently being serialized in Weekly Jump. The manga is called Ane Doki and is about a 13 year old first year middle school boy, Ochiai Kouta, whose father was immediately transferred to the Sapporo branch of his company and the 17 year old second year high school girl, Hagiwara Natsuki, who decides to be his maid while his father’s gone.

I have been waiting so long for another Kawashita Mizuki manga ever since I finished reading Hatsukoi and Ichigo last year. While the Hatsukoi Limited anime features the sexy ladies of the manga, it just doesn’t have the same charm as the print media. Thankfully, the new manga Ane Doki features the same great/sexy art present in Ichigo and Hatsukoi. The main heroine, Higawara Natsuki, looks a lot like Yamamoto Misaki from Hatsukoi and a little like Tojo Aya from Ichigo. Mizuki even references Ichigo when she has Kouta remember Natsuki by her panties. There’s another girl named Kanade Sakurai who reminds me of Nishino Tsukasa from Ichigo.

So far, this manga looks very sexy and interesting. A lot has happened in this 56 page chapter, such as a maid outfit, a somewhat tsundere/cocky girl and Kouta tryna save someone’s life. All I can say is that I’m excited about the new series and can’t wait for chapter two.

First off, nooo! K-On! is gonna end next week with episode 13 (winter special). Still no news about a second season but even if they do announce one, waiting a few months for it to come out will be excruciating; just kill me now so I don’t have to live without K-On!. That being said, I throughly enjoyed episode 12 knowing that I have only one more episode to enjoy. Spoilers after the jump.

I haven’t posted in a while cuz I’ve been too lazy/tired, but I want to write reviews for all the figures I own and create a sort of figure catalog/photo album for people to see and for my own personal use and for organizational purposes. But first, I’m gonna write about Gawker Hybrid.

gawker hybrid.

Gawker, I believe, is a blog/news network made up of different blogs that blog about different subjects, such as electronics/gadgets (Gizmodo), video games (Kotaku), cars (Jalopnik) and more. I currently read Gizmodo, Kotaku, Jalopnik and Lifehacker, which is about a bunch of things that have to do with “hacking” life, whether it be tech-wise or health related. Before, I would have different bookmarks on my bookmarks tab of Firefox to read each individual site, but now I can use Gawker Hybrid to create a hybrid website of any combination of Gawker blogs I want. This makes it much easier to read up on the latest news that I am concerned about.

Basically, you go on to any of the Gawker websites and login (you can use your Facebook account if you don’t feel like creating a new username on another site) and from there you can create a Gawker Hybrid of your own. It’s a fairly simple process and I made one right away knowing it would save space on my bookmarks bar.

a good/bad review.

Of course, having one page to read everything is very helpful and convenient, but sometimes it might be a bit confusing for those who are used to checking each individual site, much like myself. Of course, I got used to it after a few seconds cuz I can adjust.

One problem I came across is that there is no next page/previous posts option, meaning you can’t check previous posts past the amount the Hybrid displays. Of course, this might be fixed sometime in the future, but as of right now, I have to check every individual site instead of using the Hybrid if I haven’t checked in a long time, such as after work or in the morning.

Despite this one major problem, it’s a pretty good website. Everything on the Hybrid is in condensed view which allows for more posts to be displayed and for faster skimming imo. While I decided to keep all of the individual sites in expanded view, it was only to have the images displayed larger for when I’m skimming thru. If I find anything interesting, I open the page in a new tab anyways, so it’s no big deal.

conclusion.

For now, I’ll continue using the Hybrid solely because I’m too lazy to add all the sites back to my bookmarks toolbar, but it’s also a nice concept. If they fix the no next page/previous posts problem, then it would be perfect, but only time will tell. I know subscribing to the RSS feeds would be a lot easier, but for some reason, I don’t want to RSS those websites. I already RSS a bunch of other things so it’s not like I’m avoiding RSS feeds althogether. So for those of you who read any of the Gawker sites, you should try out Gawker Hybrid.

A mini E3 round up of what I’ve gathered thus far.

Microsoft.

1. 1080P video streaming
2. Facebook/Twitter integration
3. Last.fm streaming
4. Netflix Queue editing (2-4 are X360 apps)
5. Natal motion controls – a camera that tracks motion
6. Avatars getting props and stuff and a store
7. Full X360 game downloads for $19.99 using USD, not Microsoft Points
8. FFXIII on X360 spring 2010 – better not come out on X360 before PS3
9. Metal Gear game for X360 = I don’t care

Nintendo.

1. Wii MotionPlus update – new games shown
2. Super Mario Galaxy 2 – now with more Yoshi
3. Golden Sun DS = awesome
4. Wii Fit Plus
5. Wii Vitality – pulse reader for Wii = wtf -__-

Sony.

1. full of win
2. Sony motion control tech demo
3. FFXIV online
4. Team Ico’s new game: The Last Guardian
5. PSP Go – looks ugly, but interesting
6. still no PS3 slim, but it’ll come, just wait…

I’m sure there’s more but I can’t remember. Anyways, off to pick up my brother from school, then work.

Ok wow, Sony’s E3 presentation is just full of win. Up next is a live demo of God of War III. I know this post is gonna be meaningless cuz there’s no video or images, but just the fact that Sony’s doing a live demo is awesome. I can’t wait for this game to come out. Btw, was the announcement about the first two God of War games coming out on Bluray real or fake? If they’re real, I’m definitely getting them cuz I never had a chance to finish before I sold them T-T

Sony just showed a preview for a new title from the makers of Shadow of the Colossus, Team Ico. This game has been talked about forever and while I’ve never played Ico or SotC, I’m interested in Team Ico’s new game.

It features a little boy running from something who is snatched up from a ledge by a flying feathered cow/cat/monkey creature, thus saving him from death. The art style is interesting in that the boy is a cartoon and everything else is realistic.

Lol, Gizmodo said that the trailer is so amazing, the audience needs a moment before applauding; I wish I could have seen it.

So everyone knows about the Wii’s motion controls and Sony’s Sixaxis, but it seems like this year at E3, everyone’s stepped up their game, including Microsoft.

…online -__-

Great news for those who love mmos, but this isn’t for me. All I care about for now is FFXIII and FFvsXIII. If FFXIV production is slowing down FFXIII and Versus, I’m gonna be pissed.

FFXIV Online will be exclusive to PS3 and will release in 2010.

Used to be really into video games and followed E3 religiously, but not this year. Only announcement that really swept me off my feet was this: Golden Sun DS Coming in 2010. Ugh, if only 2010 were tomorrow, then we could get this and FFXIII.

Sorry for not posting any pictures, but I’ve been busy with work and everything. I’ll try to upload some pictures soon, but I just wanted to inform you guys that I just got some new figures. In the past week, I’ve received the Seto San nendoroid puchi from the OVA, a Miku Hatsune figma and the Haruhi bunny girl nendoroid set from some anime convention whose name and year I forgot.

I know this is a pointless post if I don’t have pictures, but I’m really tired from working all week. I will try to upload them in another post along with a bunch of other figures (all the ones I got when I came home from college about three weeks ago and probably all the other ones that I’ve had at home all this time). Hopefully I’ll get a day off soon, but who knows.

O, and I got Negima vol.23 and I’m finally finishing Black Cat; I only have vol.17-20 left (Eve is so cute XD). Btw, who read the latest To Love-Ru?? (spoiler) Golden Darkness meets an assassin named Black who looks like Train Heartnet (Black Cat from Black Cat). He even mentions that Golden Darkness was created by a Dr. Tearju. I always assumed the Golden Darkness was just an Eve lookalike, but now I think she’s actually Eve and that her and Black had some kinda falling out and she ended up in space or something?? But she’s an alien, not a human, so maybe everything is just coincidental, but who knows (end spoiler).

Ok, goodnight everyone!