Update 7/20/14

Guys, this week has been ridiculous! Not only was there no Naruto Shippuden on Thursday but the new chapters of Naruto and Bleach were up on Tuesday! Can you believe that? Also I found out a show I have been watching which I thought updated on Wednesday actually updates on Tuesday. Damn. Plus I am enjoying the hell out of the Funimation app on my Xbox because I get to watch English dubs of shows while I do my homework. (Yes I know you have to pay for the English dubs but I don’t care, I enjoy paying for my anime, makes me feel useful)

Instead of weighing in on the heavy first let's take a peek at my favorite Twitter pics from this past week. 

A lot of Naruto this week. 

Any way. Let’s get on with this update. This week I am looking back on Kat’s Anime Corner over the course of 2014 as well as reviewing one of my favorite manga. So let’s do this!

The year is only half over and I must say this blog has already seen a lot. Hell back in March I was excited over hitting 260 views and now I am at over 1000 views. 

Time sure does fly by. So let’s go back and highlight posts from over the year.

1. Anime of 2014. I was so excited to talk about what anime I was anticipating this coming year.

2. The end of an era. The finale of That Anime Show. This was a hard time for us all.

3. My top character. I was flipping through some scribbling of mine from 2012…ish, when I came across these lists.

4. My AMV’s. How many times to I talk about music and anime in this blog?

5. My first review. I reviewed the series Dance in the Vampire Bund.

6. Spring 2014 anime expectations and anticipations. It was nice to have a concrete list of what shows would be available for the Spring season.

7. Johnny Yong Bosch answered my question!!

8. Naruto the Movie: Blood Prison review. This was my first spoiler filled review. I actually had to put it on its own upload.

9. Strike the Blood anime review. Still sad that this is such an underrated show.

10. Ships. Ships. Ships. Author relationships and fan relationships of characters.

11. Top 10 Winter Openings. This was a hard list to put together as there were so many great songs.

12. The big one, my D. Gray-Man review. This was one of my favorite posts so far because I got to share my love of this series.

13. Anime and Manga Quotes. I went through various anime and manga selecting several of my favorite quotes and discussed why I like quotes so much.

14. Exploring the fantasy genre. I broke down some of my reasons for watching Fantasy anime.

15. Mother’s Day special. In honor of Mother’s Day I put together a list of anime mom’s that rock.

16. My Vampire Knight review. I tried really hard to keep this review fairly spoiler free.

17. Top 10 Spring Anime. This was easy for me as I obsessed with 10 shows only for this season.

18. The review I forgot I did. My Bleach review. Do you remember this?

19. Breaking down different types of school oriented anime.

20. Father’s Day special. In honor of Father’s Day I saluted the amazing Fathers of anime.

21. I actually decided to rate the anime movies I have seen…and realized just now that I totally left out the Death Note movies! Are kidding??? Shit…

22. Romance…Genres? Yep, I went a little bit crazy when it came to the romance genre. I guarantee though if you were to look at my bookshelf you wouldn’t question it. Hell, just look at my movie collection (it’s smaller).

23. Top 10 Spring Openings. Fun Fact: I rewrote this list five times. I kept rethinking my list. I will say though that my top 2 stayed the same throughout.

24. Fairy Tail review. I actually broke down a few reasons why I am obsessed with the show. Okay, being completely honest, the main reason besides the fact that it is Fairy Tail is the voice actors.

25. This list…was rough just having to pick one thing per update.

I am so grateful for everything and excited that everyone has stuck by me this long. Thank you guys…so very much.

Now I have a really exciting manga review for you today and it will be unlike any manga review I have done or will do. Reason? Well I think I went a bit overboard with a small itsy bitsy part that you will definitely see. Anywhoo. I am reviewing the manga MeruPuri by Matsuri Hino.

MeruPuri is a four volume manga series written by the famed author of the Captive Hearts series as well as the ever popular (and already mentioned once in this blog) Vampire Knight series. I personally think that MeruPuri is her best work (read the Vampire Knight review to find out why I have such distate for the series).

Now this story is about Airi and Aram. Airi is a normal fifteen-year-old high school girl who has this theory that if she has perfect attendance then she will be able to get a good boyfriend and have a happily ever after relationship. She has a major crush on a boy in her class named Nakaoji. But he isn't really important to me. Airi has an heirloom mirror that is in the shape of a heptagram (seven point star). On her way to school so she isn't late and ruins her perfect attendance, she drops her mirror and has to quickly run back. While she was away from her mirror, a young boy appeared (the young boy is Aram). Aram is actually a prince from a different world and was sent to Airi's world for his safety because his brother cursed him. Aram's curse is that when he is covered in darkness he ages into a teenage boy (approximately 17 years old). Airi is shocked by this and this curse is the center of the story as it brings the two together and forces them to face their feelings. As the story progresses Aram falls in love with Airi and vice versa. Of course there are hardships for the young pair (who despite actually having feelings for one another rarely act on those feelings, except in extreme situations). Jeile, Aram's obnoxious older brother, is the main antagonist throughout the series as it is his curse that has caused the entirety of these issues. There are others, but that would spoil too much. I actually want you all to read this series.

Now this fairy tale romance is my favorite for these reasons. (These pictures depict my favorite aspects of Aram and Airi, now please don't freak out too much I only have like one or two pictures from volume 3 and 4 plus I don't throw in anything that is too much of a spoiler).

After I read this series for the first time I had said that I wished there was an anime. There has never been even a thought of an anime as this series isn't as popular as the other two. So instead of waiting for something that will never come. Here is what I have put together as a dream cast as well as a dream opening & ending credit ideas.

Cast:

Yuki Kaji as Aram

Aya Hirano as Airi

Mamoru Miyano as Jeile

Jun Fukuyama as Raz

Yuichi Nakamura as Nakaoji

Rie Kugimiya as Maruru

Miyuki Sawashiro as Mariabel

Emi Shinohara as Queen Veedua

Daisuke Kishio as Lei

Shizuka Ito as Umi Nakaoji

Opening Credit:

#1 Fujita Maiko - "Mirai Wo"

#2 BoA - "Every Heart - Minnano Kimochi"

Ending Credit:

#1 Scandal - "Kagen no Tsuki"

#2 7!! (Seven Oops) - "Fallin Love"

Okay...so maybe I thought about this a lot. I really would love to see this be an anime though. Hell I would be okay with On/Off and Kanon Wakeshima coming back on to do another of Matsuri Hino's pieces. They did both the Vampire Knight anime, but I really think the songs I chose really fit.

What would you choose? Would you cast different actors ? Use different songs?

So let's talk about one last thing before I rate this manga. The ages. The two main character's ages are something else.

Airi at the beginning of the manga is 15 years old while Aram is 12 years old. The manga ends five years after the beginning of the manga with Airi 20  years old and Aram 17 years old. Hmm...Anyway.

If you look at the technicalities, it is kind of creepy. However it is a really cute story that I could read over and over...oh who am I kidding...I do read it over and over.

So my rating for this manga, MeruPuri by Matsuri Hino is...

10 out of 10.

I actually really enjoyed the series and it felt kind of complete to me so I felt a sense of closure upon reading the end of the series. Yes I would love to know what happens after the end of the manga but for now, I am satisfied with the way it ended.

So I swear that I had actually typed up my character of the week...but I cannot for the life of me find it ANY WHERE!! Now this doesn't mean I won't tell you who the character of the week is, because I did actually post a hint picture on Instagram and Tumblr...I just won't have all my information on the character like I usually do.

So this week I chose:

Tohru Honda

from Fruits Basket

Sweet girl who has an unfortunate life until meeting the Sohma family.

She is madly in love with the idea of being the cat zodiac only to find out he is real and living with her.

She is a kind hearted person who is willing to sacrifice her own happiness and self for the sake of others.

She has gained a lot of friends due to her kind nature.

She even gained a cute hubby in the end. ;) Read the manga to figure it out.

I HAVE A SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT (yeah this is usually the part where I ask for your suggestions, but this is really important)

Next week on Kat's Anime Corner's Character of the Week as the entire update will be special due to it being a special day, the character will not be one character but two different characters! (this won't be like the Blank from No Game No Life CotW) These two characters aren't even in the same anime! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled!

That is all I have for you guys this week! Now if you want to find out more about what is going on with Kat's Anime Corner just follow me on Instagram (@vamp1929), on Tumblr (vamp1929.tumblr.com), or on Facebook (Kat's Anime Corner). Until next week.

SPOILER ALERT - READ AT YOUR OWN RISK - SPOILER ALERT

Naruto

So much happened that I just don't even know what to say...there is one major thing that stuck out though...

Sasuke and Sakura had a moment.

He is starting to care for his teammates!

Since I don't really know what to say...I will leave you with this thought. This is how I want to see the series end.

Bleach

URAHARA! Finally he is back. So basically Ichigo, Chad, and Orihime are going to travel to the Soul Kingdom via a replica canon of the Shiba canon.

Though this one is unstable and can only shoot once. Sounds dangerous. Well it should be considering who built it.

Did anyone else question why Yoruichi appeared from Orihime's boobs? Or was that just me?

Still waiting for more people to show up to join the fight. The Shiba clan, the Xcution members, the remaining Arrancar. Wouldn't it be cool though if Isshin and Karin showed up too?

So many thoughts.

Well that is it. See you all next week.

Ja ne.

xx Kat
=^.^=