I picked this up purely because the cover looked so lovely, thankfully it turned out to be just as good as the cover.
Summary
Fairy Cube starts out rather scattered. We see a glimpse of Ian's childhood, then we see a fairy murder, and finally we get a little introduction to Ivan before he takes a hit from Rin who was trying to hit a few girls that tried to bully her.Ian tells us Rin is his dear childhood friend, but he has to pretend he dislikes her because of a certain incident. Rin is rather annoyed at this, but before they can talk too long, Ian's father tells him to hurry to class. Ian's father is a teacher at his school. Then we see another Ian, a much darker and meaner Ian, who berates the first Ian. Ian tells us this is Tokage, his other self, who he has seen since he was little, and who has made his life miserable. No one but Ian can see him.As Ian is walking home, Tokage pulls his bag away. When Ian goes to pick it up, he sees someone at the scene of a fairy murder. He also notices a talking doll and the fact that the gentleman takes something from the scene of the crime. He follows the man to a shop and is corner. When Ian is corner, he confronts the man about the crime. The man tells him he only took what the lady stole from his shop and gives Ian a cube with a green lizard inside. As Ian leaves, the dolls expresses her regret that he will die soon.Ian runs to the police station to tell them about the man, but no one believes him because Ian has gained a reputation for telling lies. Just then Rin comes in with her mother. As the police take her mother, Rin reminisces with Ian about their childhood. We get a brief flashback, showing that Rin's mother has always been abusive to her and that Ivan told Rin about fairies. Unlike the other children however, Rin believed Ian and went out early one morning so that he could show them to her. After witnessing the fairies, Ian showed Rin the wings drawn on his back, which Rin found beautiful. However, this little meeting was cut short when Rin's mother and Ian's father find the two. It seems Tokage somehow influenced Ian's father and brought him to Ian and Rin. Ian also remembers what followed, how his father burned the wings on his back, and how he told Rin he hated her in order to protect her from his father.Before the two can talk much longer Ian's father shows up once more and forces Ian to leave. At home he questions Ian and asks whether he was trying to leave like his mother. Then he checks to see if Ian's wings are still gone so that his son will not be able to fly away. Meanwhile, Tokage is up to his tricks again. This time he takes Rin's bus pass, the one she dropped, and kills a guy from Rin's school who is on the phone with his girl and places her pass near his corpse. His girlfriend, worried, goes to find him and finds Rin's bus pass; she tells a few people, and the next day, a bunch of girls begin to gang up on Rin. They insist that she killed the guy, even though Rin states she lost her bus pass and didn't do anything. Ian comes to help her, but the girls brush him off by saying he is a lair. To save Rin, Ian asks her to trust him like before and takes her hand. Using her power and his, he is able to show all the students fairies. The students are dazed and Rin takes Ian's hand and runs. However, Ian's father sees the two, and just as Ian confesses to Rin that she is precious to him, his father stabs him and Ian dies.Ian's soul is protected from minor demons by a mysterious person, and when he finally reawakens and goes to the human world, he sees Rin with himself, only it isn't him but Tokage. Knowing that Rin means a lot to Ian, Tokage makes his move on her and asks her out. Ian, infuriated, goes to find the strange man and doll for answers and a way to return to normal. Angry, he attacks the man, but he is stopped when a fairy emerges from the doll. The fairy, in her own anger, looses control of her powers and the mysterious man named Kaito, transports both of them to the other world.Kaito tells the two how to get back, but they run into trouble on their way home. Thankfully with Ainsel, the fairy's help, the two manage to return in one piece. Ainsel is quite impressed with Ian and decides to help him, but she informs Ian that she is doing all this for Kaito and not Ian. Ian is given the body of Eriya, a young boy and a special amulet that prevents other 'wing people' from seeing that he is one as well. Wing people are fairies who have taken over a human's body.Meanwhile, a girl transfers to Ian's school, and it turns out she is a wing person as well. She and Tokage eventually have a show down in which Tokage kills her and claims victory. Rin sees this, but she is knocked out by Tokage's attack when he hears her. When she awakens, she believes that what she saw was just a dream, until she notices Tokage's broken amulet. Just then Eriya comes running in to save Rin and Rin finally realizes that Ian is really Eriya. Unfortunately, Eriya dropped his amulet, and by saving Rin, Ian has exposed himself to Tokage. The two arrive that Eriya's house, where his angry grandmother waits, but instead of a lecture, Ian learns that Eriya's grandmother is special and able to see spirits. Hence she knows that Ian isn't her grandchild and she is able to see Ainsel. The volume finishes with Eriya's grandmother telling the group that they will have to hear her story tomorrow.
My Thoughts
Fairy Cube is amazing! I love it. I haven't read a Yuki Kaori manga before, so I was not too sure what to expect going in, but now I know I'll have to pick up her other series available in English, Godchild, Cain Saga, and Angel Sanctuary. I love the beautiful art and intricate story, as well as the multifaceted characters.Fairy Cube moved at a very brisk pace, but it never felt rushed. The pace was perfect, I felt that nothing dragged on, and nothing was done too fast. Rarely does a manga manage to pace itself so very well; I am impressed. The story itself was very interesting; a lot of mysteries and mysterious characters were introduced. I cannot wait to discover each one's motives and what is really going on behind the scenes. The main characters are also very interesting and likable. Ian seems rather weak at first, but he is actually rather strong, and grows stronger as the story moves on. On the other hand, Rin seems rather strong at the beginning, but we learn she is very frail, yet even when she is so very frail, she still manages to stay strong. The two main characters have a lot in common (namely their traumatic childhoods), yet both take drastically different approaches in dealing with them. Ian is rather passive, he tries as much as possible not to anger his father (mainly because he knows Tokage's influence causes his father's abusive behaviour), and pretends to be happy. Rin on the other hand, doesn't hide the fact that she isn't happy and tries to cut herself away from her mother's abusive tendencies by going to the police. Both also see in the other the only ray of light in their lives. However, neither is mushy and lovey-dovey, thankfully! Ian, distances himself from Rin for her safety, and Rin isn't blinded by love, she notices the difference in Ian when Tokage takes over. Both characters have weaknesses and strengths, making them more enjoyable to read about and connect with. In particular, I like how neither becomes plain stupid just because they are in love. Countless times there is an interesting lead who becomes stupid because s/he falls in love, so this was very refreshing!The art is lovely. Yuki-san manages to have a unique art style while at the same time retaining a main stream manga feel to her art. The art is clean and very detailed. Character designs are lovely, especially Ainsel. Actions and gore are also well depicted. The layout isn't the best, but it still works rather well and captures some cinematic feel. Overall, I am very impressed with Fairy Cube volume one and will definitely be continuing with this series.~Joanna
I happened to redeem my club nintendo points a few months ago, but just got around to posting about it now. I decided to go with the animal crossing cards because I needed some play cards and the point amount was not too extreme. Free shipping and handling was really nice on nintendo's part, and I am very satisfied with these cards. Now I can play Crazy 8s in style. hehe.ps - I made it to gold status, so I'll be getting a nifty 2010 calendar :D~Joanna
I'm not really a big one-shot fan, but I could not resist picking this up at half price.
Summary
This one-shot features 5 individual stories all centering around school romances. They are: Love at First Touch, Expiration Date 2001, Second Impression, Frequency, and Baby Universe.Love at First Touch is about a girl named Eri who develops a crush on a boy named Kohei because he tried to cheer her up with a pat on the head. Ever since this incident, she has found his rather plain hands, very attractive, and gets flustered every time he touches her with those hands.Expiration Date 2001 is about a girl named Miwa who is on the track team and has a crush on a boy on the team named Kenta. When she helps him out in cleaning duties, he gives her a soda that he loves with an expiration date in july 2001. Miwa decides that the date must be important and vows to ask Kenta out before the expiration date (which is in two years).Second Impression revolves around Haruka, who got stuck doing committee work for her school during summer break. When she is coming to school early for one of these committee meetings, she gets soaked by Naoki accidentally. Naoki, who is there for summer school, is very popular and somewhat of a slacker, but it turns out he is there watering the Sun Flowers. The two slowly begin to talk as they attempt to help a sun flower they nicknamed Sunny bloom, and Haruka finds that Naoki isn't as bad as he first appeared.Frequency has a slight hint of supernatural as Kaori finds she is able to hear model student, Morihiro's thoughts after the two collide. However, Kaori discovers that Morihiro isn't as nice as he first appears and it becomes a lot of fun for her to tune into Morihiro's thoughts. However, when Kaori hears his thoughts about Shizuka, she does not understand why she is so sad to know that Morihiro likes Shizuka.Finally, Baby Universe is told from the perspective of a boy, Kengo, who remembers how he and Saki and a few others tried to call UFOs on Christmas Eve when they were children. However, he no longer talks with Saki and there are some strange rumors going around that she is dating an older man. Yet even when they haven't spoken in years, Kengo cannot help but wonder if Saki remembers that Christmas Eve.
My Thoughts
School romances aren't really a genre that I enjoy a lot, but I did find this short story collection mildly entertaining (maybe because I got it for 6 dollars Canadian XD). The ones I most enjoyed were definitely Second Impression and Frequency. Of those two, Frequency was my favourite because the premise was interesting (and I like supernatural stories) and well developed. I also liked the main characters and the fact that the romance wasn't explicit, but rather the ending suggested, quite strongly, that the two characters did in fact get together at a later time.
The other stories were rather cliche and painfully so. I think one of the most redundant was Love at First Touch, you have the shy girl who acts cold to her crush because she is too shy to actually try to talk to him. The boy who is popular but doesn't understand the girl's feelings and just makes it worse for her act. Then you have the scene where the boy, Kohei in this particular story, teases the girl, Eri, by saying that they make a good pair. You then have the girl snap and get angry because she cannot contain her feelings. Subsequently, you have the resolution with the boy looking for the girl so that he can apologize, and when he does, she confesses to him. THE END. yawn. If this wasn't so over done, then maybe I would have enjoyed it a little more. The girl's annoying actions don't help either. I don't like weak girls who cannot handle their emotions. Not to mention, this being a one-shot, the story and characters are rather shallow. I think this one was my least favourite out of the five stories.
The second story is also pretty awful and stereotypical shoujo stuff. Like in the first story, the girl is shy and as such cannot confess to her crush. One of the dumbest things in this story is the girl's obsession with a date on a soda the boy gave her nonchalantly. It's rather sad. I hope I never become so desperate that I look for signs in the smallest gestures, and objects. I found the fact that her friends constantly pushed her to confess also unappealing. Sure, friends are there to support you, but these friends were not just giving friendly advice, oh no, they were quite forceful in their decisions about her life. And just like the first story, after the conflict (this time because the girl said something), the girl and boy make up and date. Again, the usual shoujo stuff.Second Impression, however, was an interesting story, because it wasn't the same characters and story told over a million times. Unlike the usual shoujo heroine, Haruka isn't looking for love, but like the usual shoujo heroine, she's a bit of a pushover, and although I don't like doormats, the overall direction the story took made me enjoy it. What made Second Impression stand out from the other stories was that Haruka didn't already "like" the boy (Naoki) when the story began, rather she got to know him first and then began to enjoy his company. This more realistic take on developing relationships with the other sex was what made me really enjoy Second Impression. Of course, being a one-shot, this relationship is still rather shallow, but overall it is a much better story then the preceding two.My favourite one shot from this volume is Frequency (like I mentioned before). This story really stands out because the main character is drastically different from the others, and this is the only story in the whole collection with a supernatural twist. Unlike the others, Kaori isn't shy, she speaks her mind, which makes for some humourous situations, and she isn't afraid of talking to boys. I really liked that she was able to talk with the boy (Morihiro) as a friend, and not just as a girl crushing on him. I liked the premise of the story as well (girl being able to hear the boy's thoughts), it was cute and funny. Plus I'm a sucker for supernatural stories XD This story alone drastically increased my enjoyment of Times 2.Unfortunately, the last story returns to age old shoujo conventions. Even though it changed things up by making the protagonist male, the basic story was just a modern retelling of boy rescues girl. I was a little disappointed because the third and fourth stories started to improve my experience with this one-shot. Basically, the boy Kengo, is fixated on one girl, Saki. When he learns she is dating an older man, he decides he wants to help her out. Story ends with the two of them looking lovingly into each others eyes.Times 2 isn't horrible, even if I make the majority of it sound as such. It's just that there is nothing new to be found. If you are like me and have read quite a few shoujo school romances, then chances are that Times 2 isn't going to hook you in, because it's just a quick retelling of the usual shoujo heroine and plot. However, if you happen to find this on sale, then it may be worth your time. Likewise if you are new to the genre, Times 2 is a great introduction, or if you enjoy high school romances, then this may be worth your time. All others, stay away. Hmmm....this sounds like a review XD Anyways, not horrible, but nothing exception. I won't be rereading this one any time soon.
~Joanna
When my little brother discovered, by chance, the first Rune Factory in the bargain bin for only 20 CAN, I knew I had to pick it up at such a cheap price. Rune Factory is my 50th DS game! So I finally reached my goal of owning 50 DS games! Now I'm on to 100, or not. hehehe. We shall see.
Sorry about the picture quality. You probably won't be able to make out some of the games. But if your interested in my collection, I have an account on Backloggery.com under the same username, soaring_wings. My whole collection is listed on there ( not just DS games). You can also see how pathetic my beat statistics is ^^;;;;
edit: I currently own 53 DS games. The three not pictured are Dragon Ball Origins, Wario: Master of Disguise, and Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times.
~Joanna
When at Best Buy soon after the launch of the DSi, I was approached by a Nintendo employee who showed me and my brother the new DSi features. They weren't that bad, and the picture function looked like it could be a bit of fun. However, the two colors (black and blue) really are not my colors, so I'll probably hold out on buying one. The lady gave both me and my brother a keychain (pictured) that has the the functions of the new DSi. It's always nice getting free things :D
Oh yes, before I forget, I'm interested in very pale, pastel colors (preferably lavender, but I'll take pink, green, and blue as well) ^____________^ To give an example, I want my colors to be as pale as the current Coral Pink DS Lite.
I picked this up purely because the cover looked so lovely, thankfully it turned out to be just as good as the cover.
