My Favorite - The Art of My Neighbor Totoro Book

My family and friends will vouch for my love of anything Totoro. I just love this fuzzy "thing" (because I don't know what "it" is exactly) that I have gone loco buying trinkets, blankets and stuff in Tokyo during our last visit. However, something has to complete my love in full circle and it has to be this collectible The Art of My Neighbor Totoro book.

This artbook is a collector's item. Every anime lover out there and ardent fans of Studio Ghibli will be happy to own one of these artbooks. I'm just glad I bought one and it's nestled very nicely on my bookshelf along with my other collections.

The artbook has plenty of illustrations created for the movie - My Neighbor Totoro. It's colorful and I love reading the info about how they came to be.

Let's say I'm one happy owner! I want more artbooks! I'll definitely buy other artbooks and perhaps I'll buy them from New York, in that small bookshop near Times Square and the name escapes me right now. They carry affordable artbooks there too for less than $50! Yes! This one is around $90 so I think I'll buy some in Manhattan.

Anime Wednesday - Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Here's a post from my anime-lover daughter about Kaichou wa Maid-sama. Read on!

This week, I’ll be introducing a new manga/ anime that’s perfect for people who enjoy a good light-hearted romance high school story.

Photo credit: fanpop.com

Kaichou wa Maid-sama/ Maid-sama (Alternate title: The Student council president is a Maid)

Kaichou wa Maid-sama is an on-going manga series by Hiro Fujiwara. It focuses on the female student council president, Misaki Ayuzawa , in a once all-boys school turned co-ed, with only having 5% of the school being female. Usui Takumi, the school’s heartthrob is just one of Misaki’s problems in school. Labeled as a ‘heart-breaker’ by girls, Misaki holds nothing but annoyance at him for treating girls like that. Besides him, her main problem is that…

She works part-time as a maid in a café! It’s a secret from the whole student body (even to her close friends). And to make matters worse, Usui find out her secret part time job!

How would it affect her reputation as the student council president, when everyone finds out about her secret?!

Basically, the whole thing screams out giant fluffy clouds of cuteness! Especially the main characters.

Photo credit: fanpop.com

Misaki Ayuzawa:

The black haired and amber eyed student council president of Seika high school (as of latest chapters, resigned from her position as a second year) who’s known by the male student body as ‘The Demon President’. Living with her mother and sister, Suzuna, she took a part time job to support her family after her father left them with a large debt, which is the root cause of her hatred for all men (except the gentlemanly type), with the sole exception of Usui.

Usui Takumi:

The handsome blonde and green eyed heart throb of the whole female body of Seika High (with the obvious exception of Misaki, which in later chapters become invalid). Coming from a Royal British heritage, despite being half Japanese, he’s quite exceptional at everything. Usui lives alone with his pet cat, Licht (German for ‘light’) in a high-rise condo, away from his somewhat estranged family back in Britain. His family seems to have complicated issues with him being an illegitimate child of the Walker family, being born of Patricia Walker and Yuu Hirose, one of the Walker family’s butlers.

So with two amazing characters like that, you’d wanna see how this all ends! So if I we’re you, go on and watch it. You’ll surely enjoy all the sensually adorable characters and humorous situations that Fujiwara made.

My Daughter's Paper Children Drawn Art

Say what? I thought, when my daughter told me she wanted to take pictures of her paper children, she was referring to those cutout of papers in the shape of a boy or girl that I used to do when I was young. She corrected me and showed me her piece of "drawn art" with little and cute kids in various poses. The artistic concept of this paper child or children started from Japan (what's new?).

She drew several small paper kids, about 1 1/2 inches tall and posed them with real objects she found interesting around the house. It was like art imitating life or the other way around. One thing I can say is, my daughter's drawing is so awesome! I'm a fan!!!

You may download or save the pics but please do not take credit for the art my daughter has painstakingly done. If you want to feature her work, please feel free to leave me a message. Thanks!

Wednesday Anime - Axis Powers Hetalia - Italy (North and South)

A couple of my personal favorites are these guys~

Basic Statistics:
Name (Human name): (North) Italy Veneziano/Feliciano Vargas
Age (by physical appearance): 20
Gender: Male
Birthday: March 17
Hair Color: Brown/Auburn
Eye Color: Brown/Amber
Height: 172 cm (5’7.7”)

Appearance:

He has short brown hair and brown eyes, with a curl sticking out from the left side of his head, which acts as his erogenous zone when stroked or pulled. He wears a blue WWII military uniform, a black shirt and tie, and black boots. As a child, he wore dresses and was often mistaken by others, especially Holy Roman Empire, as a girl. 

When not in his uniform, he can often be seen wearing a white sailor suit-style top (with blue collar, necktie and sleeve bands) and blue shorts.

Personality and Interests:
Italy is a cheerful, energetic and dopey man, who went from being a kin of the once great Ancient Rome to an irresponsible crybaby. He loves pasta, pizza, gelato and cheese. Although he relies on Germany a lot, Feliciano doesn’t really listen to what he says and just daydreams or wanders off to someplace. His hobbies include cooking, siestas, painting and singing.

In the webcomic and the 1^st Drama CD, it is noted that he frequently gets a lot of stomach pains due to his overindulging on gelato. Feliciano has a compulsion of wearing his birthday suit for his daily 3PM siestas, and usually (almost every time) forgets to put his pants on, causing Germany to have to lend him a pair of his own. His public display of his...er, birthday suit has become notorious enough that Switzerland will fire (or most likely shoot) upon him if he’s caught streaking through Swiss territory.

During one point, he would easily surrender and wave his white flag around (It was said by Germany that Feliciano manufactures those white flags from thin air) and almost at every time he’s caught in a pinch, he would wave his flag around and start whining thing about he’s too young to die or he still hasn’t eaten his pasta yet or even more, he doesn’t taste good…(*sigh* I feel bad about those nations who had him under their care…)
He also has the verbal tic of making a ‘Ve’ sound and in the anime, he also makes other onomatopoeic sounds as well, his most notable chant being ‘*herahera’.

(Note: *herahera is a Japanese onomatopoeia which means “acting foolishly” or “frivolous”. Herahera~)

Though he was relatively weak and timid as a child, he was able to take on Turkey single-handedly at one point in time. According to Germany, when Feliciano’s hands and legs are bound, he seemingly…dies. And apparently, he also has a brother who is just as pathetic and weak-willed as him.

And the character I’ve grown fond of (well, one of the guys I’ve grown fond of over time…):
Basic Statistics:
Name (Human name): (South) Italy Romano/Lovino Vargas
Age (by physical appearance): 22-23
Gender: Male
Birthday: March 17
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Green/Hazel

Appearance:
Romano has dark brown hair and has more of an olive complexion unlike his younger brother but in later artworks, there is almost no visible skin tone difference between the two. His eyes were originally supposed to be green but were later changed to hazel or dark brown in later colored works.

Like his brother, he has a long wild curl (that also acts as an erogenous zone), though it rests on the right side of his head, as opposed to the left. He is shown wearing a khaki uniform in a different style than Feliciano’s (but more similar to Spain’s), with ¾ length sleeves.

As a child, he didn’t necessarily wear a maid dress like his brother but simply just an apron, however, in some strips, he is depicted wearing a maid dress and apron just like his brother’s, though the colors are unknown.

Personality and Interests:
Romano is typically friendly, sweeter and kind to women, but instantly reverts into being strict and less social towards men. Despite appearing to be tougher than his younger brother, they both are equally cowardly and ineffectual, if not even more. He’s stubborn as they come and has been described as being quite timid. Though he isn’t skilled with his hands (always fumbling or sorts), it is said he is a good pickpocket. He also has the habit of speaking in profanity, often towards his brother, Germany, France or Spain.

As a child, he often slacked off and slept when it came to doing chores, though he was rather clumsy when he actually bothered to do them. In certain strips concerning Spain’s control over Southern Italy, it was revealed that the young Romano had a bed-wetting problem and often had trouble finding the toilet due to the vast size of Spain’s mansion. Also as a child, he had the disease Chorea as a child, and that sort of played a part in his clumsiness (if not, it’s just lazy old Romano…). Spain attempted to heal him by making him dance the Tantarella; Romano appeared to recover from the disease, whether due to those efforts or not.

When using grenades, he seemingly has no clue of the correct way of throwing them (throwing the pin rather than the actual grenade, a habit he sadly shares with his brother…). In another strip, it’s shown that he is often controlled and led around by his own Mafia. It’s partially due to the long influence of the Mafia that Romano’s view of the world is solely biased and bleaker than Feliciano’s.

While Feliciano eats a variety of food other than pasta, Romano refuses (I dare say.) to eat foreign food, especially if it happens to be cheese or potatoes. He has the verbal tic of saying/making a ‘Chigi’ (or even ‘Chigigi’) sound when he’s agitated or when his hair curl is pulled.

In the present day, the two brothers don’t really get along very well: Romano refuses to acknowledge his brother’s mere existence, though Feliciano is more than eager to be around his dear big brother. As a child, Romano often felt jealous and inferior to his younger brother, due to Feliciano inheriting their grandfather’s talent for art, while he could barely draw anything. Even though he’s like that, he’s shown to have at least a subconscious care for him. Usually when it’s mentioned or hinted that he cares about Feliciano or even his previous caretaker: Spain, something always happens that angers him and he instantly reverts back to being in an angry state. 

-Arice215

Wednesday Anime - Axis Powers Hetalia Part 2 - U.S.A. and Canada

Another personal favorite of my mom - U. S. of A.!

Basic Statistics:

Name (Human name): America/Alfred F. Jones

Age (by physical appearance): 19

Gender: Male

Birthday: July 4

Hair Color: Blond

Eye Color: Blue

Height: 177 cm (5’9.6”)

Appearance:

He has short and dusty blonde hair with an **ahoge, representing Nantucket, sticking up and blue eyes. He wears a tan uniform and a brown bomber jacket with the number ‘50’ on the back (representing the fifty states). His glasses represent the state of Texas. America is often seen holding a hamburger or a large-sized soft drink (usually cola) and flashing a ‘thumbs up’.

(Note: **Ahoge is similar to a cow-lick. And I’m pretty sure that a lot of you know what a cowlick is.)

Personality and Interests:

Alfred is a cheerful, energetic and somewhat conceited young man who is obsessed with heroes, justice and freedom. He has an annoying habit of sticking his nose into everyone’s business, which make it difficult for him to make friends. He especially loves eating hamburgers and junk food, to the point of breaking into tears if he doesn’t get one, and can even eat strange and (almost) inedible-looking things due to inheriting England’s sense of taste…or lack thereof because as a child, he grew up eating England’s food (Poor kid.) Alfred is also known for not being aware of how “the atmosphere” is when he’s around others (at one point, he was told to read it.) He and the personification of Italy share that same trait and thought that it was a book and made a pact together to find and read it. It has been noted that it’s not that Alfred lacks the ability (unlike Italy, who clearly lacks the ability) to “access the situation”, he simply chooses not to. 

On multiple occasions in the comic, it has been shown that when calm OR serious, Alfred can become very logical, reading further into things than he usually would, and can actually read the atmosphere. His hobbies are sports, games and making movies. Furthermore, when he introduced himself to Japan, he stated that his hobbies were “quick-draw, archaeology and adventures” which Japan misinterpreted (to him) that Alfred’s hobby was lechery. Notably, he also possesses an abnormal amount of strength, shown that even as a child, he easily swung a full-grown bison around (much to a shocked England) and once seen running around, dragging a heavy Rolls Royce that belonged to England, behind him for an hour in order to ask permission to borrow it. In a crossover game (also made by the same mangaka), he was able to stop a car with the heel of his foot.

Alfred is shown to be ignorant of the geography outside his own home, believing that maps of the United States constitute the “world map” and that he can simply get to other countries by car travel. Also, he was shown becoming concerned about his weight and it is mentioned that he has invented strange diet machines as well as becoming obsessed with exercising (in which he became paranoid about his rising weight, as he was unaware of his building muscles…typical.) Aside from being afraid of ghosts and weighing scales, he’s scared of Marmite. It was also revealed that he has at least 238 weaknesses, one of those being Dora the Explorer (I’m sorry…what? I’ll pretend I didn’t know that). As he is obsessed with heroes and happy endings, he hopes that his future would also be that way.

Though he is friends with an alien named Tony and other weird creatures, he doesn’t believe in England’s magical friends, faeries or unicorns, except on Halloween. 

It was also mentioned in a Hetalia Christmas event, he was jealous of all the kids in his country that get presents from their fathers. That may have stemmed from (or referenced) to his fast growth (as a nation) and young age, and how he missed out on a lot of his childhood things by growing physically mature so quickly, as well as what seemed to be the lack of parents for most of the nations, even if he was practically raised by England (on a more brotherly relationship) and having a brother, namely Canada, who was raised by England AND France.

Along with USA, of course, we can’t forget his dear brother: Canada!

Basic Statistics:

Name (Human name): Canada/Matthew Williams

Gender: Male

Birthday: July 1

Hair Color: Dark blond/ Blond Orange

Eye Color: Violet

Appearance:

Matthew’s hair is wavy and most of the times depicted as two-toned; lighter blind on top and more of an orange (or darker blond) shade on the bottom and tips. He has violet eyes and sports a curly ahoge off the top of his head, just like his brother: Alfred. 

He is always seen wearing a heavy tan winter coat and pants as his military uniform, though when dressing casually, he’s usually shown wearing a hoodie (sometimes with the Canadian flag emblem on it) and a pair of jeans. He wears glasses like his brother, yet he also sports a pair of goggles on his head at times.

Often drawn a little shorter in his fanarts, the official art of Canada makes it rather clear that he’s either the same height/build as his brother or very close to it.

Personality and Interests:

In contrast to his loud and obnoxious brother, Matthew is calm, shy, sensitive and hates fighting (yet it’s said that he’s a really strong fighter!). Despite that, often confused or mistaken for his brother, he always manages to find himself in trouble for some incidents or whatnot that his brother has caused. When not being mistaken for Alfred, almost all of the other nations tend to forget of his existence and because of his invisibility; he once got sat on by Russia, mistaking him for a ‘comfy’ chair. He is rather passive aggressive and was once even able to make Alfred cry by arguing with him for three hours straight and pointing out every single one of his faults. Matthew is also said to love maple syrup as in one chapter, he offered some to Alfred for his coffee. And according to the mangaka, he always has been a skilled tactician. 

Matthew also has a pet polar bear named Kumajirou, who (unfortunately) always forgets his owner’s name. In return, Matthew always forgets Kumajirou’s name as well.

Next issue will be the 2 Italy characters. Watch out for it!

-Arice215-

(Photo credit: all photos from kitayume site)

Wednesday Anime - Axis Powers Hetalia Part 1 - France/Francis

This segment in my blog has been dormant for sometime because my daughter and I have been too busy with other stuff. Now that she is going back as an anime-freak, I have given this Wednesday meme to her to write about.

So, welcome the first post of my daughter's Wednesday Anime series. She will be writing articles about her favorite anime characters and shows.

Here's the first post for the series:

(Photo credit: hetalia.wikinet.org)

Axis Powers Hetalia is a Japanese webcomic created by Hidekazu Himaruya. The comic centers around the historical  happenings during World War II  and  gives history  a comedical outlook.  The series  involves anthropomorphic representations of the world's nations,with the storyline jumping  from  pre-historic WWII to modern day. The  anime is very  stereotypical  with  the characters and  it  may  be  offensive to others but it is definitely a  humorous and would make history classes less boring and more interesting!

Today, I am featuring one of the main characters of Hetalia: France.



Basic Statistics:
Name (Human name): France/Francis Bonnefoy
Age (by physical appearance): 26
Gender: Male
Birthday: July 14
Hair Color: Blond
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 175 cm (5’9”)

Appearance:
He has shoulder-length blond hair, blue eyes and a slight amount of facial hair which he believes makes him look like an "*onii-san." His facial hair represents the Gorges du Tarn, or Tarn Gorges, that he’d been growing since the late 18th century (and yet he looks like he isn’t a day over 20…) He wears a long blue coat with matching caplet, red pants and brown boots, even though it has been said by both England and America that he sticks out like a sore thumb dressed like that. (His reason was that he looks fashionable and that the others’ outfits look like trash…oh France, you.) He is depicted, if not often, with a rose (which inadvertently is also used to censor his genitals when he goes out nude)

Personality and Interests:
Francis was once considered a large nation, but after the death of Napoleon Bonaparte, he became useless during wars and instead used wine to attract tourists top his country. He has a very intense rivalry with England, and enjoys fighting with him over trivial things like “who is more perverted amongst the two of them”. His hobbies are agriculture, fashion design, sketching, singing, manipulation activities and wandering around art museums and fashion boutiques in Paris, especially odd or chic places.

Photo credit: hetalia.wikia.com

Francis is infatuated with most of the nations and is well known for seizing every opportunity to make inappropriate innuendos and showing his affections, often by streaking or being touchy-feely.  He is very attracted to beautiful things. He said “be gentle to the ladies and be gentle to the earth.” Is his motto. He admits to being “the dandiest among the dandies”. And he loves himself so much that he doesn’t even bother to learn or remember English and considers French the “language of love”. In addition to that, he refers to the others as insignificant characters to himself.

Stated once that he’s afraid of computers (even though he isn’t intimidated by other technologies), Germany (and claims that he hates Germans in general, despite the fact that he gets along well with Germany and Prussia as of late), Russia, Switzerland (as he would shoot him down if he passes over to Swiss territory), an angry England and quite possibly, Turkey. It seems that gardening relaxes him along with reading Japan’s new manga(s).

He’s referenced his old age several times, saying things like how his waist is always creaking; his back hurts and had to surrender to sleep early in the day. Although, he gets very upset when he is called a grandpa as opposed to a big brother (a self-proclaimed title) and claiming he is still young.

He also holds a belief that those who have been “toyed with history” are always reborn, but into a normal life and get to live regular, happy lives. He manage to confirm this when he met a girl, during the modern century, named Lisa who had come to France for her birthday, which he believed to be was the reincarnation of Joan of Arc.

(Notes: *onii-san means ‘older brother’ or ‘big brother’ in Japanese)

Arice215

Chibi Millie Sketches

It's not a secret that my daughter can draw and she can draw really well. I am surprised myself to see how her sketches develop from a seed of idea.

Last night, I put her talent to the test again. She already passed when I asked her to make my birthday giveaway logo few months ago. And I love Japanese manga-like drawing so it was what I asked her to draw and she delivered. So, to put her on the spot again and see how she has developed so far, I made her draw our darling little Bichon Frise pooch. She asked me how I envisioned her outcome to be. I told her I just want a front profile of Millie and the other funny antics that she does as a cute, little dog.

Half an hour later, here are her sketches. She has more though but I will post them later because she wants to improve the sketches. She also made a .gif  to make our little pooch wagging and tongue-swaying. Cute and lovely! Kudos to her! I think and feel she will have a bright future in graphics design or even in the field of animation.

Aim for the star my princess because I can see it is within your reach.

All the sketches are done using her Bamboo pen and tablet. All photos are copyright to my daughter.

My Daughter's Anime Plushies

My daughter is really crafty. She moved from polymer clay to painting to drawing to stitching Japanese anime characters' plushies. She loves working with fabric felt and I must have bought her several colors already.

Her plushies are 6 inches tall and stuffed with recycled fabric fillings from old pillows that we threw. She stitches all of these with her hands and uses various colors of flosses and big needles.

Her friends and classmates ask for their favorite Japanese anime character which she transforms into cute plushies. She can also customize a plushie doll according to the preference of her friends and classmates.

So far, she has made more than a dozen of the plushies. Some she gives as presents and others she sells. My daughter is earning on her own! I guess I can stop working now :)

Here are the most recent plushie project she has done. Aren't they cute?

Wednesday Anime - Sailor Moon

I have watched this series a long time ago and remember the main character, Usagi Tsukino as the girl with the blond and long pony tails.

The story is about a middle school girl who began to have powers after talking to a cat named Luna. Usagi defends the world in the form of Sailor Moon. At first, she was reluctant and quite immature as she wanted to be just a normal girl. Later on, she learned to embrace her powers and fight the world's nemesis from the Dark Kingdom.

Wednesday Anime - Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch

My daughter is a fan of this manga series which she follows religiously. She knows every character in the series and knows exactly what's happening (surprisingly, when I ask about her homework, she gives me a puzzled look...hmmmm). She even knows the theme song by heart in Japanese! Ask if she knew what it meant, she'd say she loved the melody and all and just mimics the lyrics. Oh kids!

Anyway, going back to the anime my daughter loves, this is a series of a bevy of mermaid princesses who later discovered that they have powers. The main star of the series is Lucia who is a mermaid princess who fell in love with Kaito who is a human (which I think is not 10o% human...my daughter won't tell!). She took the form of a human to be with Kaito who she loved while Kaito continues to love the mermaid form of Lucia unknowingly.

It's like the story of the Little Mermaid but here, Lucia cannot tell Kaito that she's the mermaid who saved him because she'll turn into foam.

The story is geared in the mahou shoujo (magical girl) genre.



(photo from: freeweb)

Wednesday Anime - Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki's a young 13-year old witch in a small town who left home as a witch-in-training. She needs to complete this training for a year and has found the town of Koriko her next abode. Her stay in Osono found her establishing a delivery service. She met a young boy named Tombo who showed her around the city on his bike. She met a lot of characters along the way which I think helped build the story of a "non-antagonist" theme. The story's central gist is personal growth and self-realization.

I find this story very intesting and with values to tell. Kirsten Dunst voiced Kiki in the English version and Phil Hartman as Kiki's cute, little black cat named Jiji.

(Photos from: Studio Chibli)

Wednesday anime - Kawachi Kyosuke

Anything about baking is a sure hit to my daughter. Kawachi Kyosuke, a baker in the Yakitate Japan anime series is probably the funniest goofball amongst the characters in the show. He is the side-kick of Azuma, who is another baker-par-excellence and as the series progresses, Kawachi becomes the surprised senior baker over Azuma.



(photo from animenfo.com)

Wednesday Anime - Candy Candy

This is one of my all-time favorite cartoon. I watched this cartoon series while I was around 10 or 11 and never got to finish the series because it was just pulled out abruptly by the tv station showing this very wonderful and poignant story of a young, orphan in a tiny orphanage in Lake Michigan. Her name is Candice "Candy" White. Her fate changes when she met her "Prince of the Hill." Later on, she meets Anthony Brown who becomes her "young love" and a boy named "Terry Grantchester."

The story was written by Kyoko Mizuki.

(photo from www.comune.modena.it)

Wednesday Anime - What is Anime?

Anime or animation is commonly referred to as Japanese animation. Japanese people have such affinity with animation be it English or French, Disney cartoons to the famous Naruto.

This anime comes from manga or the Japanese term for comic books catering for the Japanese businessman to the housewives at home, down to the kids in school and teens out there. Some animes are rather violent with a very mature content. Those type of animes are marketed in a different way by video sellers all over the world. I would stick to the wholesome animes like Candy-Candy (which is my ultimate favorite, see pic on the left) Kiki's Delivery Service or Howl's Moving Castle, which by the way was released as a movie.

Just a word of caution to dear mommies and daddies out there, just because it's anime, it does not mean for children, OK? Check the rating too before you buy one or rent from the nearest video store. Stick to the general animes like Pokemon, Dragon Ball Z, Voltes V.

(photo from Wikipedia)

Weekend Special

It's still summer vacation for my daughter so she finds way to be entertained. She has plenty of stuffed toys to play with so she's pretty much covered in the entertainment side. She has this habit of talking to her toys and giving them names. Sometimes I join her when she has "discussions" with the "furry gang" - as what we call her stuffed animal toys.

These photos were taken during their "weekend anime special." They were watching Howl's Moving Castle and seemed to be having such a great time!

Wednesday Anime - the initial write up

I am an anime lover. Well, not exactly that avid where I can tell who is who. I love Japanese cartoons especially the old ones like Candy-Candy, Voltes 5, and others which titles I have forgotten already. I grew up watching these old Japanese anime and up to know, I still remember most parts. As a tribute to my growing fondness on Japanese animation, I will be featuring anime trivia every Wednesday. So, if you have any anime characters in mind who you would like to be featured or would like to know more about them, do let me know so I can scour my treasure box of Japanese anime ;) A word of caution though, I will not be featuring animes that I deem not worth featuring. Anime lovers out there will know what I mean.

Watch out for some anime trivia in this space very soon!

Domo arigato gosaimasu!