Switch Girl

Switch girl manga introduces a character named Tamiya Nika. A switch girl is someone who assumes two roles in her everyday life but this is not the same as Multiple Personality Disorder. Tamiya Nika knows full well what she is doing.

At school, she is the most beautiful girl and is admired by many. She puts up great effort in order to look well everyday. This is known as her 'switch on' mode. She does her best to look as graceful and pretty as much as possible, afraid that other people would find out her true self.

When she gets home, she returns to being her true self by 'switching off'. She truly is a tomboyish and funny girl. Her hobbies include shopping for great bargains with her family at the stores. Her eyes can automatically calculate prices of goods and gauge their quality. She likes eating smelly fish for lunch, wears a track suit and some geeky glasses then ties her hair up into three buns that points to different directions.

This is what she looks like when she is on 'switch on' mode!

Nika might be slightly(okay, I mean a lot!) strange when she is in her switch off mode, but there is no doubt that she is just as kind and compassionate. She has the tendency to believe in strangers, she's a bit naive but she makes up for it by being strong and helpful to even those who had oppressed her. She isn't the smartest either when it comes to academics. She has failed a lot of tests, but thankfully, Arata(super smart guy) was able to help her.

She has intense feelings for Arata, more intense than she ever would have expected. Arata wasn't that much of a heartthrob, since he is quite secretive and sensitive when his life is being probed. Which is why Nika had a hard time trying to understand him and win his heart.

This is Kamiya Arata, Nika's love interest. A cool and laid back boy who likes his solitude. However, when he met Nika and discovered her secret that she was actually wasn't the pretty and elegant girl she wants everyone to believe, things has changed considerably for him.

He has his own secrets too. One of them was the fact that he hides his good looks with a pair of geeky sunglasses. His switch on is the complete opposite of Nika's. While Nika does her best to look very good to her classmates, Arata hated attention(particularly from females) and prefers being in the background. Another dire secret he keeps is about his broken family. It seems he was mentally scared by his mother abandoning him and his father in order to marry another man.

To sum that all up, he's an emo and an attractive one. He might as well hang out with Sasuke.

 The page above is the funniest part of the manga that I have read. My tummy hurt laughing and I can say the same for Arata who was watching her secretly from the door. LOL!

Switch girl is an entertaining manga. Perfect for people who are into love comedy themed stories. Things get serious in the later parts though, so again, I became bored and stopped reading it after awhile.

The Bride of the Water God

A manwha made by Yoon Mi-kyung.
This is the story of a girl who was sacrificed by her people to be the water god's wife to please the God enough to bring back the long awaited rain.

The girl was ready to face the monster that was the water God, expecting him to be ugly and cruel, but he did not appear or seem to be what she had expected!

What attracted me to this manga is the art style. I see the vibrant colors all over the cover. The details of the characters' traditional outfits, the flowers that seem to be growing on every page of the manwha and the male characters who are as powerful and mysterious as they are good looking. I'm sure every  fan girl out there would understand. -winks-

Nope, that little boy there is not their son. Actually, I have not read that far enough to know if they were able to have a son.

The manwha had an interesting start, one that would make you wonder: what would happen next? when will the couple be honest with each other?
See here, the water god is the another one of those mysterious hunks who had experienced a heartbreaking love life in the past and now becomes a cold but relatively kind and caring husband to the mortal that has been offered to him to be his wife.

In this manwha, there are scenes you might be looking forward to, like the one on the left. It's not something unique either, but it sells! The artist noted that this manwha may contain mature content like scenes suggesting rape and violence. As for me, I think this is completely harmless as long as you are of legal age.
I find the romance a bit boring, monotonous, serious and kind of masochistic. It's that kind where the girl has to cry a lot and the guy gets to hurt the girl in every possible way both intentionally and unintentionally.

Little is revealed about all the characters, so one will need to read on to know. I don't find this manwha special but it's entertaining enough. Drama addicts and hopeless romantics would love this kind of storyline and pair.  

Here's a link for those who are interested to read this manwha. It's still ongoing, I have no doubt that you would be able to catch up with the story in no time.

The Bride of the Water God

Mahou Sensei Negima!

An anime-loving guy friend of mine told me about this anime. He said that the girls were beautiful and interesting. So, I decided to check it for myself, to see how good it is.

Like all typical harem and ecchi animes, this one shows us many unnecessary panty-flashing, boob-bursting, girl shrieking scenes. A ten year old genius who aims to become a successful mage someday is tasked to teach in an all girl's school. Turns out, that his teaching job does not only require mental skills but physical endurance(the girls are hard to control!) as well!

 This is our cute little mage, Negima-sensei! Frankly I can't  blame the girls for quarreling over him. I would love to pinch those cheeks of his, too!

One disappointment: He's not as genius as I thought he would be. He's naive, too kind and a bit of a push-over sometimes. He's not perfect at magic, either. But, over-all, he's not so bad.

The character I hate most: ASUNA! She's Mahou's resident Tsundere, tomboyish, tough, bad at academics, aggressive and annoying. Hard on the outside, yet soft on the inside. Personally, I would think of her as one of the most cliche characters in the anime. I wonder if the mangaka planned to make her Negima's main('cause Negima's got a horde of girls crazy about his cuteness!) love interest.

One other character I dislike!

Takahaka-sensei is Asuna's secret(not so secret) passion! Though, I can't see why she would be attracted to this gray-haired, sleepy-eyed teacher. He's not even remotely interesting, but... oh well XD






I didn't bother to go on reading the manga... too boring and disappointing in my case. I can say though that the manga is far better than the anime.


Don't get me wrong, though. I'm not saying the manga or the anime is terrible. It's just not my taste. For those who enjoy love comedies, high school set animes/mangas with cute high school girls and flashy outfits on the side, then Negima is one you would definitely enjoy! ^0^

Hanatsuki Hime

What really got me interested in the manga is the art. Everything is drawn in detail, the flowers, the characters and the costumes! The manga only consist of 8 chapters, so if you have some time to waste and are a hopeless romantic, you would enjoy reading this manga.

The manga tells us that this story is set in a far far away land. Through the pages, you will see the characters dressed in somewhat Persian clothes and a land of sand. You will also encounter a graceful street dancer, a demon disguised as a handsome man, an Arabian prince and even a tiny genie! 

I was attracted to this illustration of the dancer and main character, Lys.(see above picture)  Every page she's in is filled with her grace and charm.  I would have give the mangaka/artist, Wataru Hibiki a thumbs for his/her art skills. The artist has done well in creating the characters both with colorful designs as well as colorful personalities!

As you can already guess, this is a shoujo manga. The front cover shows us a remarkably handsome man(with a rather vicious look in his eyes) holding on to an attractive dancer. My first impression on this? Lolicon! LOL! And indeed, it was kinda lolican but minus the perverted-ness. Not to worry though, I can assure you that the love story is pretty wholesome.

That white haired fellow is the same guy from the picture before this. I hate to give out spoilers, but here's a clue. You see the flower on the girl's hair and the leaf patter on the guy's face? Well, they are indeed connected and I leave it up to you to find out about that connection.

Yet another, Lolicon-ish pic! The girl is actually 15 years old going on 16. There is something special about her 16th birthday. Again, I don't want to spoil you by telling you the reason why her 16th birthday is very special.

Their relationship is almost like that of a brother and a sister, but not really. I guess what made me think that is because the guy was the one who raised Lys and took her with him to travel to different cities and towns.
You will find the raven haired bishounen playing on a stringed instrument while the girl dances in front of a crowd. It's rather annoying that most chapters began with this scenery and telling as the same lines about a story from a far far away land and about a girl who had a flower marked on her chest.





Below is a picture of a prince. He's cute! It's sad that he doesn't have a better role other than being the Lys's temporary guardian and Siva's (raven haired guy) wannabee rival. Siva's not human, so the poor prince Russet don't stand a chance against him.

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Hakushaku to Yousei

Hakushaku to Yousei ( Earl and Fairy ) is an interesting manga I have come across last night that had my eyes glued to the computer until I have finished the last chapter available. It was a manga published, I think,  some time in 2009. The authors were Tani, Mizue for the story and Ayuko for the art.

The story is set in 19th century England. And like many novels I have read about counts, dukes, ladies, castles and other things magical about the past England, this manga fascinated me. Reading this manga took me back to the times when prince and princesses fall in love and then live happily ever after.

Lydia, the main character, is the woman on the picture with the 'rusty' colored hair. She's a fairy doctor and has a rare ability to see and communicate with fairies. She was taught everything she knows by her mother who was also a fairy doctor. One thing I like about this character is her tough girl attitude. But she actually has a pure heart. At times (most of the time) she's naive and easily tricked. She is enthusiastic about any topic related to fairies which is why she would tell everyone that fairies are real and just because they can't be seen they don't exist. For this reason people would look at her as if she was crazy or a weirdo.

That cat behind Lydia in the picture, is Nico but he's not a cat. He's a fairy though he still looks a lot like a cat. He can speak (figured that he's a 'he' otherwise he would be wearing a dress not a suit, right?) I see him as Lydia's guardian, often warning her about danger and certain 'suspicious' people. He likes to drink alcohol rather than milk... really odd.

The good looking bishounen with the fair hair is called Count Edgar who claims to be a descendant of the legendary blue knight. He possesses elegance and charisma, traits that easily sweep women off their feet. All women but Lydia. >o<
Edgar is also skilled at lying. In the manga, he is often portrayed as a skilled liar who could fool the nobles into believing his stories. Lying was as easy as breathing to him. Edgar sure has a lot of secret. Despite his calm and cold outward disposition, I believe he's actually a good man caught in a situation where he had no choice but to do evil things in order to live. 
You can find out more about him when you read the manga. He is accompanied by his loyal servants named Ermine and Raven.

I find the art very good. The characters expressions were drawn well. Their clothes and architectural settings were detailed. The anime had a pleasant musical background which will remind you of fairy tales.

So far, I have not finished the manga yet. It was hard to find an anime hosting website that can show the anime in full and in good quality. Youtube, for some reason, would not display the video from the country I live in. >:(

Check this manga out, if you haven't yet. And if you could, would you send me a link to a good anime hosting website?