Ouran High Host Club

Ouran High Host Club is one or the weirdest, childish, ridiculous, and absolutely amazing animes and mangas I have watched and or read. If you want something serious this is not for you. It is also aimed towards girls, but I think guys could watch it just for the amazing ridiculousness of it. I love the heroine Haruhi Fujioka because she isn't your typical heroine. She is strong and smart, but she also has strong opinions and a strong love for fancy tuna. She also says what's on her mind even if it isn't exactly what goes with what the "rich kids" think. Now Haruhi is mistaken for a male the first time she meets the club and Tamaki Suoh, the club king, makes her join the club as its dog. The club after the first episode finds out she is a female, but want her to stay with the club. Haruhi hides the fact that she is a female from everyone because if she is found out she would no longer be able to be a host. Of course many members of the club fall head over heels for her as well as a few students who find out the truth. 

 

The Hitachiin twins have to be the most ridiculous, but also I have to say my favorites. It might just be me personally because I usually have a special place for twins. The Weasley twins were my favorite characters in the Harry Potter books and movies (And I got to meet them!) Hikaru and Kaoru aren't just your average mischievous twins however, their characters are actually developed, more so in the manga, but the anime does an alright job as well. They become two separate characters and you fall in love with them.

I especially love Honey and Mori sempi. They are the wisest as well as the most entertaining of the group. Honey with his stuffed bunny Usa-chan instantly became my brother's girlfriend and my brother from the first episode. He is just too adorable not to love as well as Usa-chan. If they were all real characters however I would either date Mori or Kyouya. Mori takes care of Honey and is the strong and silent type while, Kyouya is the brains of the operation and unlike the rest of the characters is serious and mature. And then there is Tamaki...you can't really sum him up, but you will either love him or hate him.

You fall in love with all the the hosts and the weird people that enter their club. You learn about why each member acts the way they do and how being rich does not mean that you have a happy ever after. Though it is cute and sweet, but it also deals with deeper issues. Now the manga is a lot better and deeper then the anime and the ending is a lot better. You can tell that the anime needed a way to tie up the series, but the ending of the anime was not what I wanted it to be.

Overall I would give it four out of five stars and recommend it :) I don't know if they can make a live action version, but they should defiantly try.

Midsummer Night's Dream

I am sure that anyone reading this blog as either read, seen an adaption, or at least heard of Shakespeare's play. For my freshman seminar class I had to go to a cultural event and one of the options was A Midsummer Night's Dream put on by Carnegie Mellon Drama School and it was AWESOME! They took the tale and though they didn't move the location or change any of the script made it a modern day telling. It is hard to explain if you didn't see it but let me tell you that an Ipad and a segway were used during the production.

I wonder if someone had an Ipad and a segway or if they budgeted for it? How exactly would you explain that one to the person who looks over the accounts. "Yes we need these two items for our production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Yes I mean the segway, Puck is going to use it" I wonder how long it took them to convince the people upstairs about that one. 

All the characters were very well cast and so many little things were thrown in here and there that it wasn't the same old retelling of the play. I really enjoyed everything, except I wasn't really a fan of Titania's outfit. It was very pretty, but wasn't exactly what I would but the Queen of the Fairies in. Especially when Oberon was wearing this totally BA red floor length jacket the plain white dress really wasn't doing it for me.
I also give them a huge round of applause for actually having a pool of water on stage. I don't know how they did it or what it took to get it there, but it added so much to the play. Also the lifts that were used for the fairies to get on and off stage were also amazing. Way to go stage crew you guys were AWESOME! I also loved how the actors used the whole auditorium and not just the stage so you felt as if you were part of the performance.

Overall it was an awesome performance and I wish all the actors the best of luck as they move forward with their careers whatever they may be ;)

Who got an A? I got an A :)

So I had I just got the grades back from my Russian Fairy Tale exam and my Math exam and guess what....I got an A on both :) I had a 95% on my math exam *happy dance/fist pump/every other happy gesture* What is even better then that is the material we are covering now I remember from high school so it should be super easy. Let's just hope not a lot of stuff from the first test is on the final and I will ace it :)

As for Russian Fairy Tales, I really had no idea how I did on the test because a lot of the multiple choice questions could have been two answers and for the essay I forgot the names of all the feminist theorist we discussed, but I got a 91% overall and a 14.55 out of 15 on the essay! I also heard that this exam was the hardest one we are going to take, mean the last exam should be a piece of cake. So excited.

I still haven't heard back about my Women and Lit midterm because I kinda skipped class today. Okay, so I went to class, but my professor was 15 minutes late so we took a class vote and we all voted to leave. I feel a quiz coming up next class because my professor is probably going to be pissed that we left, but she is always late. She was 15 minutes late for our midterm and then made us leave 5 minutes early. We deserved a day I think and I have already read the "The Yellow Wallpaper" once so it should be a piece of cake. (If you haven't read "The Yellow Wallpaper" I recommend it. It is a short story and it will really mess with your mind.

Well I just had to share my happy news with you :)

Snow White: A Tale of Terror

Alright so I really wanted to watch the movie again and let me tell you, so much better when you can clearly see and hear everything that is going on. Now it is a made for TV movie, so it isn't the highest class of film, but I think it is pretty well done. There are some rather big name actors in it as well. Sam Neill, the hero in Jurassic Park, is Lord Hoffman, Lilliana (or Snow White's) father. Sigourney Weaver, the heroine from Alien, plays the evil stepmother, and does a damn good job of it. David Conrad, the husband in ghost whisperer (and born in Pittsburgh :) plays Doctor Gutenburgh who during most of the movie is the Prince Charming character, but there is a twist in this tale.

The first thing that I love about this story is that it follows the Grimm brothers' version of the tale, which is much more violent then the tale we all know and love by Walt Disney. You understand this with in the first couple moments of the film where we see a man torn to shreds by wolves and Lord Hoffman kill his wife to save his child. After the first couple of minutes I was hooked just to see what else they were going to do to the characters that would make little kids cry if they watched it.

We also get to see the development of the wicked stepmother Claudia as Lilli grows up. Now I have to admit that if little Lilli acted like that to me I would beat the little brat, but Lilli's actions as a child are somewhat understandable. She feels as if her father is replacing her mother with this new woman, as I am sure many young children do. My parent's are still together so I can't give any personal knowledge, but it is what I have heard and seen. Also I would never marry a noble man or prince for the simple reason that everyone watches you have sex for the first time. Most people don't even want to see themselves have sex let alone have a whole crowd. I mean how did they think this was a good idea? Hello, stage fright anyone?

Next thing you know it is nine years later and Lilli is all grown up into a whinny little teenager who still dislikes her step mom, but has a major crush on Peter Gutenburgh (don't blame her). Claudia is also about to give birth and we get the first hint that she is a little off kilter. Well that and she owns a mirror that kills Lilli's nanny, but hey we all have one of those stashed somewhere. Claudia talks about casting runes and such waiting for her baby to be born and Lord Hoffman, who is very religious, prays to have a boy. Anyway Claudia and Lilli have a bit of a verbal battle over the dress Lilli is going to wear to the ball being thrown. Lilli basically tells Claudia to shove it, wears one of her mothers dresses, makes Claudia extremely jealous and Claudia goes into labor. her baby boy is stillborn and this is where Claudia jumps off the deep end, in her grief she blames Lilli for her baby's death.

As anyone who knows the tale should guess the next thing to happen is someone tries to kill Lilli. In this version it is Claudia's brother after Peter proposes to Lilli. Lilli kicks her would be assassin where the sun don't shine and high tales it into the woods where she stumbles into an abandoned house and falls asleep. And here appears our "seven dwarfs" though they are far from the cute little guys we have come to love. All are grown men who are hiding from the world either because they are hunted or because they are deformed. They do not treat Lilli kindly, except one, Will. Lilli almost gets rapped by one of the dwarfs, but Will stops him and then we get into the whole witch tries to kill Snow White twice and fails routine. After all that (Will saves Lilli every time, though two of his friends die in the process) Lilli and Will are in love, which makes you wonder, what is going to happen to the good doctor. Oh just wait. 

While Lilli is trying not to get crushed, rapped or a bunch of other unpleasant things Claudia seduces Peter, though I have to say she didn't have to try very hard. Now I can't really blame Claudia for making out with Doctor Gutenburgh. Any woman who turns down David Conrad obviously is blind as well as insane, and Claudia is only one of those things, but I can say something about his taste. Now I am not saying Claudia is not pretty, but she is married and her daughter is hot and single. Really doctor?

Any who I am not going to tell you the rest, if I have gotten your attention you can go and watch the full movie on youtube. There are a few different people who have is posted. I am just going to make one or two more comments. The first on is *drum roll* the only part of the movie that I found overly dramatic is the scene where Claudia "steals the father's seed". Like really is that whole thing needed? She couldn't just go in there and have it implied we had to see that whole awkward scene (imagine that with a room full of college kids). Another is that there is a lot of things I did not pick up on the first time I watched the movie, like Claudia wrecking the saint statues, so keep an open eye and you will get a lot more out of it.

I wasn't really a giant fan of the ending because Lilli and Will don't have this huge romantic moment (they really didn't the whole movie) and you don't find out what happens.Oh and David Conrad gets pushed out of a window! I mean I knew he wasn't going to be Prince Charming, but what a waste! And then there are the lingering questions. Do Lilli and Will get married and bring the other "dwarfs" to live with them? Does her father even live? I need answers people! This is the reason that I adore Disney movies. You always know it is going to be a happily ever after with the princess marrying the prince and living together at their castle. None of this symbolism crap that you are just supposed to pick up on.

Next Semester Is Not Going To Be Fun

So I recently scheduled for next semester and let me tell you it is going to be a battle the entire way. It isn't because I am taking difficult classes, but I have to be at class by either 9 or 10 everyday. I am not a morning person, at all, so this is going to be rough. To make it even better on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have math for a solid two hours in the morning. *sigh* Other then that however my classes sound like they are going to be a lot of fun. I am taking two literature classes and an intro to fiction writing class.

Now why am I posting this sweet little blog entry? Well because I have noticed that I have been telling you nothing about my college life, but about the shows I am watching. True I love commenting on these shows, but it really isn't telling you anything about my life, except that it is pathetic and I have nothing better to do then watch these shows. *sigh* The fact that I just realized this is even more depressing.

SO! What have I been up to? Well I have been reading my little butt off from my freshman seminar and composition, but it is nothing worth mentioning. I am passing all of my classes and as far as I know I am going to get fairly high grades in them all. I have a math exam at 3 today that I should be cramming for right now, but I thought this would be a good break from studying. Russian Fairy Tales is still both interesting and ruining my childhood. We just finished Snow White: Tale Of Terror, which was surprisingly good. I will probably make a post of it after I watch it on my own time because it was a bit hard to watch with about 100 other people. I have just taken my Women and Literature midterm, so i will tell you how that goes when I know. 

I have also started to learn Korean through online lessons on TalktomeinKorean.com. I can know say hello and thank you, but I have no idea how to write in Korean. That seems like it might be the hardest part. I will keep you updated. I have also started to talking to someone from Preu, Germany, and Australia from this online pen pal site. There are some creeps to be sure, but most of the people I talk to are really nice and sweet.

Well that is a pretty good update I think. I have started watching a few more TV shows (or rewatching as the case maybe) so I will be posting again soon :)

Shining Inheritance!

So I am a big fan of Asian Dramas and I just finished my second full series Shining Inheritance. Let me just say that after the first episode I was hooked and even though classes and work made me take a long time to finish the series it was completely worth it. I know that a lot of people don't like watching foreign movies or shows because they have to read the sub titles and I understand that. I also think that just because something is in a different language does not mean it can't still be funny and pull at your heart strings. This drama made me laugh, cry, be angry, and just about everything in between. It gets five stars! If you want to watch on your own and don't want me to spoil it for you, stop reading now and go watch it on Dramafever :)

I loved the lead characters so much and I found the acting to be very good. You felt for Eun Sung so much and couldn't help but love her. She made you love her from the first episode and the love she had for her brother Eun Woo. True at parts I wanted her to smack her step mother and step sister, but the fact that she didn't shows just how strong she was. And at the end when she does finally hit Seung Mi I wanted it to be her mother, but it was great all the same. At the beginning of the series I was a little worried that she would just be sitting around crying all the time, but I soon saw that she would not be held down for long. She reminded me a lot of the lead character from Boys Before Flowers Jan Di. If you haven't seen Boy Before Flowers go watch it now! That gets like 300 stars and I will be making a lot of comparisons between the two :)

Both the male roles Hwan (left) and Joon (right) were also very well portrayed so that you fell in love with them both. They are also very attractive :) Now because I watched and loves Boys Before Flowers I was a little harder on the males to begin with, but again as the series progress I grew to love them. Though both series lead, Hwan and Jun Pyo, are almost the same character I found Hwan to be a lot more likable a lot earlier in the series, but Jun Pyo pulled at your heart strings more because he did love Jan Di so  much, but something always happened to complicate the relationship. Hwan was a bit more realistic as a person who you would find in real life and though the storyline was a bit far fetched you completely forget about that. Joon was so sweet that I instantly fell in love with him and even though I knew he wouldn't get to be with Eun Sung in the end I found myself at times rooting for him. Also the fact that he wasn't just the "other guy" but also had a sub-story line of his own made him even more lovable. He was the perfect guy that any girl would want to date and in real life any girl with half a brain or heart would have gone for him instead of Hwan, but that is the beauty of drama. Everything turns out for the best just like a fairytale.

This series has a Cinderella story plot line and the wicked stepmother is about as horrible as you can get. It is remarkable just how evil she is and what she makes her daughter so as well. Now she does get punished in the end, but I don't think it was nearly as severe as it should have been. In the last episode however you get the idea that she is suffering while Seung Mi was happy teaching and being with her mom.

If we are talking about Cinderella stories then Hwan's grandmother is the fairy godmother. She is so sweet and helps Eun Sung so much, but she isn't so perfect that she is unrealistic. She really wants Eun Sung to take over the company and is upset when she doesn't. She is also so tricky that at times you don't know whether she is helping or not. Also the fact that she has Alzheimer's makes her even more human. Also the fact that she doesn't realize Hwan loves Eun Sung until the end makes everything more believable.

Overall it was an excellent series and I highly recommend it. I gave away a few things, but still there are so many twists and turns that even if I described the whole series you would still be surprised at parts. It had the right mix of romance, humor, and down right depressing points. I could go on and on about how all the characters were lovable, but it is better if you just go watch it yourself. I promise that you won't be disappointed.