Sabriel (The Abhorsen Triology #1)

Reviewed byJuliaAerides

The novel is set in two neighbouring fictional countries: To the south lies Ancelstierre, which is similar to that of early-20th century England, and to the north lies the Old Kingdom, where magic works and dangerous spirits roam the land — a fact officially denied by the government of Ancelstierre.

Living Dead are raised by Necromancers to do their bidding. To remedy the problem there is a sorcerer with the title of Abhorsen who puts the dead to rest.When the current Abhorsen is overcome by one such evil, he sends his bells and sword to his daughter Sabriel. She must return to the Old Kingdom to rescue her father and prevent the evil's return.
~adapted from wikipedia

Sabriel is a trilogy by Garth Nix. It has a solid, fast-paced plot with a unique world. The storyline is a much used premise of a girl with a family pet looking for her parents but the author has made it into something entirely original, different and intriguing. The concept of bells is also new idea never seen before.

Sabriel, the titular character and Touchstone is one of the best heroine & hero I've come across. Often the heroine are either damsels or warior woman and the hero falling into the melodramatic "emo" pits - which I'm proud to say that Sabriel & Touchstone is neither.

As for the theme, this book deals with Life and Death and coming to terms with oneself and one's responsibilities. Abhorsen's final words to Sabriel, "Everyone and everything has a time to die," refer to the idea of sacrifice that is both intriguing and heart wrenching scene where the father sacrifices for his daughter.

This book also deals with one's destiny as the underlying theme and the often repeated phrase "Does the Walker choose the Path, or the Path the Walker?" questions the reader.

This book is an amazing fantasy-esque book and I would recomend this for those who loves a mix of romance and action. But be forewarned that this is a type of book that you either like or dislike.

Ratings: B+

Kaichou wa Maid-sama!!

by kuro-hime



SUMMARY :

Seika High School, once an all-boys school notorious for its wild students and for generally being a terrifying place for girls, has recently become a co-ed school. With the female population still a minority and living in fear of the over-the-top antics of the males, Misaki Ayuzawa takes it into her own hands to reform the school and allow the girls to feel safe in the rough environment.

Training, studying and even becoming the first female student council president of the school, Misaki has gained a reputation among the male students body as an uptight boy-hating dictator and as a shining hope for the teachers and fellow female students. However, despite her tough-as-nails appearance, she secretly works part-time at a maid cafe in order to support her family. Unfortunately, her hard-earned reputation is threatened when the popular, attractive, and somewhat impassive Usui Takumi takes an interest in her after discovering her in a maid uniform after school.

(~adapted from wikipedia~)

REVIEW :

In the beginning, I found this series interesting. The female character is actually strong and independent (something super rare in anime, especially shoujo genre)
But I could foresee the usual plot, boy meets girl and sooner or later, they'll get together.

At first, it was something fresh and funny. But after a while, it became draggy and boring.

Not only that, the characters became unrealistic and hard to relate too. On top of that, they weren't really funny or interesting either. Misaki seem to be the toughest girl around that even dudes are afraid of her. Not only that, the girls in her school seems lame, stupid and weak. I mean, c'mon, not every girl is that lame. IT also doesn't help that Misaki and Usui seem to be superhuman at times....

The story got dull after 6 episodes. I mean, it's a shoujo anime so that means they'll get together at the end of it. It also didn't help that the anime got draggy. Around episode 20, I was yelling at the computer screen for them to get together. I mean, get together already and save us the agony of watching the two of you trying to get together.

Even when a love rival entered the picture, it wasn't too interesting. It's just too obvious that Usui will have her at the end of the day. It also didn't help that the love rival wasn't someone too interesting or cool either.

To me, this show is BOREDOM! Why? It's just too draggy, stupid and tiring. It's like watching paint dry.

Character developments? Pretty much none except for Misaki realising that she's in love with Usui and a hint of Usui sad rich family character background.

I only liked the beginning of the show when Misaki wasn't so crazily strong or whatever.

Art? It sucks. It's sloppy and so dull. Sometimes, I feel that the artists are lazy... It's not at all neat sometimes. At certain times, the character proportions could be totally wrong!
I also hated the random filled with flower scenes. It's too random and odd. The timing was just out.

Music? I have to admit I love the ED. (The OP is useless though.) Other than that, the background music is flat and dull.

As for me, my favourite character there is Aoi and even then, he's messed up. If he was slightly cooler, it would have been better.

This shows is not my favourite at all. I don't like it too much and didn't find it particularly interesting or fun to watch.

I rate it 4 out of 10.

(I don't get why the fans love it though...)

The Cry of Icemark (Icemark Chronicles #1)

Reviewed by Amaryllis



This is among the few books that I've read from cover to cover, again and again.
Undoubtedly it was quite original in terms of story lines & character composition. It was fun, very much engaging & detailed right till the end.

This book is very visual...much like a movie. Many battle scenes either bland & dull or leaves you lost. But here I could en visualize the city and how the fortifications were put together.

In this book, I have no particular favourite characters as everyone of them was very rich. Also Oskan was a refreshing change from the typical self-important, blind and generally stupid male hero with enormous ego found it most books of this genre

Personally I find this to be an amazing read & I would recomend this if you enjoy reading fantasy esque books.

Ratings: A-

~additional review by kuro-hime~

It's an alright book. Nothing special but it isn't too bad either.

In the beginning, I liked the fantasy part of it.

Too bad, the author description of the battle scenes or any scene gets me lost sometimes. There's too much detail sometimes that my brain don't know which to process first.
But then again, when the author gets those description right, the visual image in my head of the book is stunning.

Characters were alright. Nothing really special.

This book is just an ordinary story book. It doesn't seem to be outstanding but it's not a terrible book either. The story seem to lack something, be it the writing style, plot or etc...

So if you just want a book to escape from the world for a few moments, I think this is the book for you.

I know why it'll never be a bestseller but it'll be enough to entertain people.

It's not too memorable either.

I rate it 5 out of 10.

Katekyo Hitman Reborn a.k.a Reborn!

by kuro-hime




SUMMARY :

The Reborn! story revolves around a boy named Tsunayoshi "Tsuna" Sawada, who is chosen to become the Vongola Family's boss due to him being the great-great-great-great grandson of the first Vongola boss, who had moved to Japan from Italy during his time. He is told by Reborn that he will become the tenth (Italian decimo) Vongola boss. Also, the other candidates for the position of the head of the Vongola Family have died. For these reasons, Tsuna is the only remaining heir. As such, Timoteo a.k.a. "Vongola IX", the current head of the family, sends Reborn, an infant hitman from Italy, to train Tsuna. Tsuna then unwillingly undergoes training from Reborn. Reborn's main method of teaching Tsuna is the "Dying Will Bullet", which will make the person be "reborn" with a stronger self intent on fulfilling his dying will. Through his experiences, the initially clumsy and underachieving Tsuna unconsciously becomes stronger and more confident, which ultimately makes him better suited as the Vongola Family's boss despite continuing to reject his Mafia inheritance.

(~adapted from wikipedia~)

REVIEW :

Finally, after 203 episodes. it finally ended. For a series that started out as a gag, it's transformation into a kick ass shonen genre is really smooth.

When it was first released, it was quite lame as the lame slapstick jokes get repeated over and over again. Honestly, I would recommend you skip ALL the gag episodes and only watch it when the action begun.

When the action begun, it was great. The plot is good too. Sometimes, Tsuna is a little cowardly and stupid but that's the reason you love him. Who would want to support a smartass, know-it-all, super confident mafia boss? (Ok, most of us would but somehow, Tsuna character makes it very hard for you to NOT support him.)

Did I mention the characters? There's a hell lot of characters in KHR but it's not overwhelming. And seriously, you will be able to remember them almost all of them. Because it has so many characters, there's so many more characters to love and hate. The character developments here is good too. I'm impressed at how the author have so many ideas for so many different characters. And to make it even more awesome, the major and some minor characters have their own quirky habits which is kind of lovable!

The art here is GREAT and so is the background music. It's all very well done. It looks very high budget to me.

I also like the fact that the anime follows the manga very closely. It doesn't have much difference. I like that.

This is an anime with a good mixture of humour, action and drama.

However, this anime do has it's flaws sometimes. But then again, it's easily ignored because everything else is so good.

I rate it 7.5 out of 10~!

And to all KHR fans out there, I heard that the anime isn't really over. There's a next season called Reborn Generation X or Reborn X Generation.Whatever it is called, I look forward to more awesome action~!!

Ouran High School Host Club

REviewed by Amaryllis


Haruhi Fujioka is a scholarship student at Ouran High School and because of the outrageous cost of the school uniform Haruhi wears baggy men’s clothing as a substitute. That combined with her short hair and huge glasses is enough to cause people to think that she is a he, and she does nothing to correct the misunderstanding. One day Haruhi was searching for a quiet place on campus to study and she stumbles upon the Host Club. In her confusion she accidentally breaks an enormously expensive vase and must work with them until her debt for the vase is paid. The school's unofficial motto is "Lineage counts first, wealth a close second"

Honestly, I never expected much from Ouran as my experiences with gender bender manga's aren't very good. After giving it a chance, I must say that it’s one of the few manga that have made me laugh. Tamaki’s OVER reaction to everything to the Host Club’s fascination the world of the "commoners" were highly amusing. Eg, They were shocked that the rumors of such a thing as instant coffee were true.

I also like the fact that it doesn't overwhelm the readers with romance and ignore the other side characters. I dislike the 'fall-heads-over-heel-at-first-glance' syndrome that seem to afflict other shojo manga. Even when you know our heroine is going to fall in love with someone (It is a shojo after all) The manga-ka build up the relationship between character, and actually romance plays a minor role til much much later towards the ending. It deals realistically with real life issues.

Hatori Bisco’s style flows, with characters that are attractive when normal and cute when necessary. The storytelling itself works well. We’re introduced to the characters and the situation early on. We as readers don’t feel lost or confused watching the plot move along. The story is kept amusing, with constant sight gags and jokes. Despite this, there is still a serious side lurking underneath, which is revealed in the later chapters.

In the end, I'd say that Ouran surpasses my expectations very well. The characters have depth and troubles each unique to each person very much like real life. There is not a single character to is there just because he's a bishonen. They all have a role to play and none was ignored. The art is also consistant, crisp and pleasing to the eye. All characters are discern able and each chapter shows that the manga-ka puts real effort towards this manga. This series ended at chapter 83 and so I look forward to Hatori Bisco's next work.

Rank: A+