Title: 魔法先生ネギま！　６月： 図書館探検部 (Magic Teacher Negima! June: Library Exploration Club)
Original Creator: 赤松健 (Ken Akamatsu)
Release Date: 3/24/2004
Catalog No.: KICM-3051
Rating: 3/4

According to a few ranking charts, this CD is also a pretty good seller like the previous two. The format is the same with 3 music tracks; one karaoke, one regular and one remix. It also has a brief introduction and a mini-drama along with the cast talking. This CD is different in that rather than just having one character, it has the three characters from the Library Exploration Club, Nodoka, Yue, and Haruna. The first pressing includes a Nodoka tarot card.

The drama in this CD is okay. The girls are searching for a cheerleading book at the request of Sakurako. They find some "sketchy" books and fall into the traps of the library. Not really exciting, but the voice actresses match their characters pretty well. One of my up and coming favorite seiyuu, 能登麻美子 (Mamiko Noto) plays Nodoka and 桑谷夏子 (Natsuko Kuwatani) plays Yue; she plays Kanako in Love Hina and has a really distinguishable voice. So I do have some bias.

The vocal is different that what I expected. It's a really slow song, solemn-sounding tune and feels like something you can waltz to. The lyrics follow the theme of the 3 students, so overall, it's pretty good. The remix adds some more instruments making it sound more modern.

Finally, the cast talk, the three girls talk about more about how they would confess their love, kinda like what Nodoka has to do. I prefer some "behind-the-scenes" talk like the previous two CDs though.

I wrote this a while ago and is also posted on my pretty much defunct personal site. It's here since 'scribbles does actually get updated.

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I woke up that morning, late as usual. I had my "Programming Languages & Translator" class at 8:40am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but woke up at 8:30am. My place is about a 20-30 minute commute by bus, but since it was the beginning of my first semester at Columbia, the only means of transportation I knew then was via the subways. I lived on 92nd on the Upper East Side and my subway route was from 86th Street south to Grand Central (42nd Street), then west to Times Square (also on 42nd street), and then north on the 1/9 train to Columbia on 116th. It made a "U" around Central Park.

So, I left my place around 8:40am, no shower that morning, just the essentials. I was hoping to make it to class before it ended so at least I could sit in the lecture even for a just a few minutes. I got on the subway and proceeded to head to Grand Central. When I was almost to Grand Central, the subway stopped on the tracks between stops. I thought it was strange because it was the first time the subway had stopped on me before reaching a station (like I said, I was new in the city). So at that point, I kinda realized that I probably wouldn't make it on time for class to hear anything significant, so I planned to ditch class that morning and putz around until my next class at noon.

The subway then started again, and I got to Grand Central and jumped on the "shuttle" subway to Times Square. In retrospect, if I had exited the subway station at Times Square, I would have saw what was happening in the southern tip of Manhattan on the large TV screens decorating Times Square, but instead, I just waited for the red subway going to Columbia (Note: this was about 9:15-9:30am).

When I got 1/9 subway to go north, there was a African American there talking and had an audience in the subway car listening to him. I don't remember exactly what he said, but he was talking about and explosion and a fire at some building. Apparently, he didn't know how it happened, but he said he left (maybe asked to go or just fled) and was going home. My impression of it was that some apartment or building fire somewhere. No big deal, or so I thought.

When I got to school, I decided to hit the library because it was already 9:40ish, and the class ends at 9:55. I had brought my laptop that day to use the school's public network connections and to also buy and install a wireless network card to use around campus (I didn't have my DSL at home until October). But before I went into the reading rooms where the ethernet connection was, I stopped by a public terminal and logged onto CNN.com because I hadn't read the morning news, which is usually CNN.com. The CNN.com site was moving very very slow though, and it seemed like the server was down. I kept on hitting refresh, and still, nothing showed up on screen. I then hopped to other news sites, like ABCNews.com, or whatnot, but none of them were working either. Something's fishy. I finally got a visual on the NYTimes.com page, and saw the picture of the holes in the WTC. Oh shit. I think it was also at this time that I read that G. Bush called it an act of terrorism. At first, I was cursing in my head at his statement because I never liked Bush, his decision for a missile defense system, and his stance on the threat of a war. I thought he was jumping to conclusions on this one, but I think I was the one who only had a few paragraphs from the NYTimes.com to read about the incident.

I quickly went into the reading room and hooked up my computer to the network so I could scour the web for information to what has happened. The attempt was pretty futile with all the Internet traffic, so I packed up and walked around for a bit to collect my thoughts. The one thing I have to say is that you couldn't tell there was a disaster less than 5 miles south of where I was from looking at the campus.

I then went to buy my wireless network card from the mini-J&R store on campus, as I had planned. While I usually would have been a little hesitant buying this piece of equipment (my conscience usually gets to me about spending so much money on non-vital computer equipment), I had no doubts then because that day was probably the best day to be wired to the constant flow of information from the Internet.

I went into the store asking to purchase it and used my credit card to buy it. The clerk warned me that she didn't know if it would work because it contacted a bank somewhere in downtown Manhattan, but it did and I got my card. As I left the store (around 11am or so now), I called my parents back in California from my cell phone that I was okay. When I dialed, I could hear the special dial tone that indicated that I had a voice message, but I didn't bother checking it just then because having gone through emergencies before, I knew that the phone lines would be super-clogged and I just needed a minute's time to tell my parents were okay (later that day, I checked the message and sure enough, it was from my parents). After about 10 tries, I told them that I was safe and sound at school, which is a good ways away from the financial district (although still on Manhattan Island). The also told me that they were called by my relatives wondering if I was okay.

After the conversation, I went back into the library to the same kiosk to read the news again. This time, my jaw dropped because the headline now said that the WTC were gone. I had to read that one several times just to make sure. Noon was quickly approaching and not knowing what I should do, I figured I should follow my routine of going to Japanese class. Outside the building, there were signs that said that classes were canceled, but I met with some of my classmates who knew how tough the language department was and wanted to check with the instructors directly. When we got to the office, the instructor didn't know that classes were canceled despite the tragedy so they went and checked with the main office of the Asian Languages department. Sure enough, class was canceled. As we were leaving the building, a classmate wondered whether we had homework and so we went back and checked. Some people are so paranoid (and no, we didn't have homework, just in case you're wondering)!

At that point, I asked my classmates if they knew of a place on campus where there was a TV. None of them had a clue. So after some thinking, I figured that the business school must have TVs to watch stock tickers or something, like how it is at Cornell. Sure enough, they had it. I got a sandwich from the cafe there and sat in the TV room with a lot of other people watching the coverage on CNN. I think I sat in there for a total of 5 hours or so before I had returned home. About halfway through my stay, they brought in free pizza and sandwiches for us to eat. During my time there, I used my laptop and found a friend of mine, Eric, who was working in Midtown. He said he was okay, but didn't know if he was getting home since he lived in New Jersey.

Anyway, I got home that night, just to sit in front of the tube watching CNN for another few hours until G. Bush's speech. The next morning, I got up nice and early to get a copy of the New York Times newspaper. While it's a respected paper, the coverage was pretty weak on the attacks. The New York Post had great articles and footage.

In the days following Tuesday, I could tell that the city was in a state of sadness. The usually liveliness in the streets were gone and people on the subways were more somber than usual. I was starting to be affected by the mood. By Thursday night, the stench from the wreckage had come up to 92nd Street. At that point, I realized that I had to leave the city for the weekend and went back to Ithaca (Cornell) to escape.

As a footnote, I was at the WTC on September 8th with friends John and Eric. They were showing me around the city and we had to go to the WTC to take the underwater subway to New Jersey where Eric lived. I took my digital camera along that day and was at the base of the WTC looking up and thinking "Wow, this would be an awesome picture." But it was a Saturday afternoon, and I didn't want to look like a tourist, so I thought, "I'll just come back next week, early in the morning. It's not like they're going to go anywhere in a week."

Lesson: Don't let the fear of embarrassment or self-image stop you from doing what you want, because you'll never know if you are going to have that chance again.

I really need to get in the habit of doing things on time. I had 9 books piled up to write up on. I've been just reading away the past few days without bothering to record what I read (not a good thing given how forgetful I am). So, having to write these 4 up today was kind of a chore as I had to browse through them to remember what I had read. Not that bad since they were only a few days ago, but still, I forgot enough to doubt my own memory. Hence, it took me more than my usually alloted 20 minutes to write these up. Kutakuta da na.

Let's see, anything interesting happen? Nope, well, besides work that is. I got my new Mac 15" Powerbook for work! Hooray! After some technical difficulties yesterday with getting it booted up (it had bad RAM), I'm off and running. Now I just have to wait to get clearance to bring it home. And then I'll finally get to play with it. Heh heh.

Title: A.I.が止まらない (Love Won't Stop) Vol. 1
Artist/Author: 赤松健 (Ken Akamatsu)
Book Size/Pages: Small B-6, 212pp., w/furigana
Original Serialization: Weekly Shonen Magazine Vol 18, '94 - Vol 25, '94
Rating: 2/4

This is, I believe the second manga series I started when I felt confident enough to read manga (the first was Love Hina). I really wasn't impressed with it as the artwork isn't as good as Ken Akamatsu's later work, so I stopped halfway and left this volume on my shelf. However, after two years of reading, I'm a more experienced now, having read a lot of less than stellar manga, so I guess I'll dive back into this one. I already bought a lot of the issues, but fortunately, most of them were $1 from Book-Off, which is an awesome price for readable books. I mean, hell, I could buy the entire series for the cost of just one volume of the translated version.

Anyhow, the manga hasn't gotten any better the second time around. The story is pretty weak, the artwork isn't up to my expectations, but it does show a lot of where Ken Akamatsu comes from. Hopefully he'll add some more characters in the second volume.

Since this is a re-release, there's a bunch of bonuses including newly drawn artwork pages (more Love Hina-like) and interviews with Ken Akamatsu himself. There's a mini-poster pull-out and the inside cover is a pencil drawing of the cover.

1. 呼ばれて、飛びでて、ジャンジャカジャ～ン (Calling, Flying, Jan Jaka Jan): The computer geek and otherwise loser, 神戸ひとし, has been played again by the popular girl he has a crush on, 麻生希美華 (Kimika Asou). On his way home, a thunderstorm arrives and as he's working at his computer, his house gets struck by lightning and the girl he's been programming, Thirty, comes to life. She "transfers" to Hitoshi's school and suddenly she's the talk around the schoolyard. Kimika obviously doesn't like the attention being diverted away from her, so she has a strong dislike for her, but can't surpass her because she's perfect in almost every way (as she's programmed to). One of her few flaws is that she can't cook. When Thirty and Hitoshi are talking in private about her condition and how she's a program, Kimika secretly records it and goes to broadcast it on the school's P.A. system. However, since Thirty is a computer program, she has complete access to the school's system, and averts a disaster by making a mockery of Kimika.

2. めざせ　ホテル龍宮城 (Let's Go, to the Imperial Dragon Hotel): Hitoshi is studying all the dating books to program/teach Thirty more about human relationships. Unbeknownst to Hitoshi, Thirty obtains the book and executes the instructions exactly as it is written. To Hitoshi's surprise, she is the perfect date. And like all dates, they end up at a luxurious hotel, which is what Thirty coaxes Hitoshi to do. However, the book doesn't say what goes on at the hotel, so she just turns around, much to Hitoshi's dismay.

3. クラブでGO GO! (GO GO! at the Club): Hitoshi wants Thirty to join some of the clubs at school. She performs poorly at the cooking club, doesn't do well at the floral club, and plays too rough at the volleyball club. Since she's not much a team player (from volleyball), Hitoshi recommends she join the tennis club and tone down her game a bit. However, her first opponent is Kimika and with her lowered ability, she's being beaten pretty bad. Hitoshi then tells her to max out her ability at which she kills Kimika.

4. 私を海へつれてって (I Said I'm Taking You to the Ocean): They go to the beach only to find that it's polluted with cans in the sand and that there's a little brat who doesn't want them to be there. The reason is that the little kid thinks they're just going to pollute more. Moved by this, they offer to help, and with some of ingenuity on the part of Hitoshi and Thirty, they use Fleming's right hand rule to use electro-magnetism to pick up the trash (or something like that. I took physics sooo long ago).

5. 笑う侵入者 (The Laughing Intruder): Hitoshi is sick, so Thirty tries looking at a computer database for some cures. She executes a mysterious program which seems to give the computer a virus and eventually makes her weaker and weaker. At the end, the virus, a laughing clown, is revealed and it mentions that he has 64 minutes before Thirty is erased.

6. SAYONARA: As the time ticks down, Hitoshi tries to figure out where the virus is originating from. Since he has so many computers, it takes him a while to figure out that it's his little laptop. He unplugs the data cable and the virus is destroyed.

7. Moneyで大変！？ (A Problem with Money!?): Hitoshi is low on funds so Thirty tries to help. She first prints up some money, but they're definitely fake. She then alters his bank account, but he says it's wrong. So in order not to get caught, she hacks her way back into the bank's database. This journal takes her underwater to the island/database. She fixes his account, but is pursed by "guardians" and she narrowly escapes.

Title: がぁ～でぃあん Hearts (Guardian Hearts) Vol. 2
Artist/Author: 天津冴 (Sae Amatsu)
Book Size/Pages: B-6, 180pp., w/furigana
Original Serialization: Monthly Shonen Ace 8/01-3/02
Rating: 2/4

I really have to say that I hate the pesky cat mascot, Daisy, in this series. She appears as the main focus of attention for at least half these chapters, and man, she's is so frickin' annoying. The story has toned down a bit with the number of girls not increasing as much (even though there are enemies). Still very episodic, but there are some connections between chapters which I hope is going to be expanded in the coming volumes.

There's two bonus mini-comics at the end of the book. The front cover underneath the dust jacket has a sketch different from the cover, and the back has a message from the author, like the previous one.

8. 敵の名はBURN (The Name of the Enemy is 'BURN'): There is a new enemy faction in town called "BURN" and they're after Kazuya. The first henchwoman to go after him is 風の紫音 (Shion of the Wind). She tries to play the sympathy card, but he doesn't take notice. She gets more aggressive and eventually drugs him, but when faced with Hina (as a Guardian Angel), he's able to break out of the spell.

9. やすらぎ (At Ease): The girls and Kazuya go out hiking and Hina is feeling down because she feels like she can't help out. Using fireworks as the setting for his analogy, Kazuya cheers her up a bit. Later on, they find out that Kotono and Daisy are gone. Hina, using her special powers, saves them from a collapsed cave.

9. 決戦！文化祭（前編）忍びなれど。。。 (Showdown! Cultural Festival First Part, A Shinobi but...): Maya is acting strangely lately and becomes very flustered at the sight of Kazuya. During the camping trip, Kazuya saw her in the bath, in the nude, and that's what's bothering her as only her husband can see her nude. Not being able to live with it she decides to kill him, but Hina comes and saves the day, but not before her bomb explodes and destroys parts of the school which Hina has to repair.

10. 決戦！文化祭（後編）宿敵と現実 (Showdown! Cultural Festival Last Part, An Old Enemy and Reality): "Burn" has another henchwoman, this time named 静 (Shizu). At the festival, we find out that Kazuya's teacher is a huge fan of his mom because his mom was a such a cool person in school. Shizu and Maya scrap it out with Maya almost being defeated when Kazuya's mom unleashes Daisy to defeat Shizu. Apparently, Kazuya's mom isn't as normal as she looks and may have some special powers.

11. 夢見るデイジィ (Dreaming Daisy): This is a mini-chapter where the extended family of girls living in Kazuya's house discuss what they should do about Daisy's lodging as she doesn't have her own room. Kazuya's mom suggests that they build her a house, but it turns out to be a poorly made doghouse.

12. デイジィ大あれば　キャッツカードは死の香り (If Daily Were Bigger, the Cat's Card is the Touch of Death): Kurusu is running out of uniforms and as such is losing powers fast. Kazuya is sick, but her nurse uniform doesn't cut it so with help from Daisy, she goes out to steal a very expensive nurse uniform. During their heist, Hina arrives to prevent the theft, but Daisy successfully prevents her from dispensing justice.

13. なくせない場所 (The Place that Can't Be Lost): Hina's boss gives her the duty of protecting an very important egg for a week and to prevent it from getting into enemies hands. At almost the end of the week, Shizu and Shion from "BURN" try to take it from her. Hina tries to transform, but she can't. The egg hatches and out pops a girl who gives Kazuya the power of the Guardian Angels. Hina's boss comes back to see what's happened and is puzzled by his ability to obtain that power.

15. こびず甘えず　でもかまって欲しいぜよ (Unflattering and Not Nice, but I Want You to Take Notice): A mini-chapter where Daisy causes a fuss in Kazuya's room. Gawd, I hate that cat.

Title: ガンスリンガー・がーる (Gunslinger Girl) Vol. 1
Artist/Author: 相田裕 (Yu Aida)
Book Size/Pages: B-6, 178pp., w/o furigana
Original Serialization: Monthly Dengeki Daioh 7.02-11/02
Rating: 3/4

I was going to get the anime to this, but after reading the manga, I've decided not to (plus the fact that they're not releasing the DVDs until after its peer shows have already finished). I'm not very impressed by the story. It's interesting, but not something that made me want to read it cover-to-cover in one sitting. What I do like about this manga is the mood that it sets, particularly the psychology of the characters couple with the character design. I think the characters here, especially the girls, are drawn very straight and rigid, making them seem to lack personality. That's really how they are, given that they know almost nothing about their past and are half reconstructed to be killing machines. To add to that, the unwavering loyalty to their bosses adds to the tension, and "freakiness" of their persona. This aura makes up a bit for the lack in story.

There's nothing extra in this book, not even a little intro by the author on the front cover flap. And just as a note, the names and places in this story throw me off a lot as a lot of the names are in katakana, and aren't necessary in English. I'm not good at names, especially if they're in languages I'm not familiar with (I've never like Russian literature because of that...Russian is tough stuff).

1. 天体観測 (Stargazing): Henrietta is "saved" by Jose from a social welfare company, which is in fact a front for an organization that takes these terribly disfigured children and makes them into partially mechanized assassins. They also make the children forget their previosu lives as to make them more efficient killers. Henrietta becomes one of them after her family gets murdered and she's the only one alive, but left with missing limbs. This job is for her and her master (I guess), Jose to take out an Albanian man. She loses her cool when a henchman roughs up Jose a bit and causes the mission to fail. She herself gets injured and needs some repair. She thinks she's made Jose mad by failing the mission, but Jose takes her up to the roof and enjoys the night sky with her.

2. Love Thy Neighbor: This chapter features Rico, another girl assassin. She wakes up at the beginning of the day, grateful that she can do various chores by herself. At the training range, the girls talk about what makes them happen, and it seems like pleasing their masters/guardians is it. On the mission, Rico is told to scout out the surroundings of the building, but she meets a nice boy named Emilio. They have a long conversation which causes her mission to be delayed another day. At home, she and Henrietta talk about boys in general. The next day, they go make the hit and Emilio shows up unexpectedly. Heeding what her master, Jon, hold her, she kills him happily.

3. THE SNOW WHITE: This chapter features Toriella and her guardian, Hirusha. During one interrogation, she kills the prisoner in haste despite her orders. At home, she's going through her period, and although it's painful, she savors it because it means she's alive. Her next mission is to take into custody and protect a somewhat important figure. However, he doesn't not lend himself to be held captive and always seems to find a way to escape. She captures him again, and he explains to her that he just came back to town to see his daughter. Apparently moved by this, she lets him go and plans to tell Hirusha that he escaped.

4. エルザ・デ・シーカの死（前編）(The Death of Elsa de Shika, First Part): Raoul and his assassin girl, Elsa are found dead. In particular, Elsa seemed to have died a gruesome death with a gun wound through her eye and out her head. Ferumi and Gabrielli are brought in to investigate who could have done such things. Meanwhile, Jose gives Henrietta camera for Christmas and it seems like their relationship is getting even closer. Ferumi and Gabrielli interview Toriella and Rico as well as visit Elsa's room.

５．エルザ・デ・シーカの死（後編）(The Death of Elsa de Shika, Last Part): Henrietta and Jose are away at a distant hotel, probably to keep them away from the potential murderer. F & G interview them and as Gabrielli talks to Henrietta, we slowly see how much she is tied to Jose. In the end, she reveals that if something ever happened to Jose, she would kill herself, in the same manner that Elsa did.

Title: 苺ましまろ (Ichigo Marshmallow) Vol. 1
Artist/Author: ばらスィー (Barasui)
Book Size/Pages: B-6, 172pp., w/o furigana
Original Serialization: Monthly Dengeki Daioh 3/01-6/02
Rating: 2/4

This "story" revolves around 4 girls, two siblings and two neighbors, ranging from 11 to 16 years old. The oldest, and the person in charge is 伊藤伸恵 (Nobue Itou), a precocious girl who tries to act older than she really is. Her sister, the 12 year old 千佳 (Chika), is a lot more proper. The other two neighbors are Chika's classmate of the same age, 松岡美羽 (Miu Matsuoka) and finally, the youngest at 11 is the quick-to-tears 桜木茉莉 (Matsuri Sakuragi).

The reason I put story in quotes is because there isn't an underlying plot. Each chapter is a story in itself without much connection the previous or next except for the characters themselves. I don't believe a continous plot is an essential item in manga. Good art and design, along with very well crafted isolated stories can surpass the quality of some longer, yet boring storytelling. Azumanga Daioh, which was published in the same monthly as this, is a good example of that. While I do like some of the chapters in this book, a lot of it was pretty bland, neither funny nor cute.

There's a bonus 2 page comic with the girls and the author in the back and the first few pages that has Nobue introducing the girls is fully colored. Nobue is shown with brown hair here, but in the black and white pages, she's shown with no darkening of her hair. This threw me off for the first chapter.

episode 1. 傷心伊豆旅行 (A Trip to Heartbreak Izu): The girls are getting reading to go to school, and Nobue offers to drive them. Chika declines, and later finds out that going to school, she drove the other two girls far away so that she can pick up some ceramics.

episode 2. 人間ゴミ (Human Trash): Nobue is bored, so she gets her sister to play games with her. Miu comes over and starts playing, and so Chika's free to go back to studying. However, Nobue loses and in her anger, puts Chika butt-first in the wastebasket and the other two have a laugh watching her trying to get out.

episode 3. お泊り (A Stay-Over): The 4 of them are at Nobue's house. Matsuri and Miu aren't getting along too well. The group eat dinner and bath together, and afterwards, Matsuri apologizes...then passes out from being too tired. While she's sleeping, Nobue and Miu play with her hair.

episode 4. 寝るな！ (Don't Sleep!): It's Nobue's birthday tomorrow, so Miu and Chika decided to stay away through the night to make presents for her. In order not to fall asleep, they come up with different techniques to stay away with ice, peppers, etc... In the end, they finish their birthday cards, but Nobue isn't too happy about Chika's.

episode 5. 禁煙 (No Smoking): This is probably the funniest chapter of the book. Nobue decides to refrain from smoking. However, everytime she looks down, she always has something in her mouth. In the end, she gives up and goes back to smoking.

episode 6. 外で遊ぼう (Let's Play Outside): It's a nice day outside, so Nobue recommends that they play outside. They try baseball, soccer, and kendo, but in all these events, Miu plays a little too rough. They finally retreat to playing video games, but they lock Miu out.

episode 7. 起きるな (Don't Get Up!): Miu is playing dead, so Nobue and Chika tickle, slap, put her in front of the radiator, etc... However, after all that abuse, she still tries to play dead. That is until her favorite program airs on TV, and she wakes up for that. She then goes back to playing possum.

episode 8. にゃあ (Nyaa): Matsuri wants to buy a hat, but is embarassed to, so Nobue has Miu give her a hat with cat ears to wear as she goes to the store. Along the way, people look at her strangely. At the store, she finds the hat she likes and buys it, but in the end, she seems to like the cat hat better.

episode 9. 自由研究 (Self-Study): Miu is doing research for her summer homework and follows everyone around, even to the bathroom. Unfortunately, she doesn't get any interesting information, so for her final work, she makes up more exciting stories.

episode 10. 海はどうだ (How About the Ocean?): The girls go to the ocean to play. Miu brags about her two piece, but is told she isn't "filling" the top. In revenge, she takes the top off of Nobue which gets her buried in the sand.

It's so friggin' hot here. While CNN weather says it's only 73 degrees outside, it's roasting in my apartment. I think it's because I live on the topmost floor, so as you know, heat rises...directly to me. My projector usually adds a few degrees to my room which is great for the winter, but not during...spring? Speaking of which, when do I lose an hour of sleep?

I could turn on the air conditioner, but I'm too cheap to afford such luxuries. My electricity bill hovers around $20 bucks a month (kinda like my gasoline bill), and I'd like to keep it that way.

And for the dumbass incident of the day, Citibank decided to charge me a nice $25 service fee for not keeping my average balance of $X dollars. One thing to note is that I haven't touched that account since last September, and it's been fine since, until this month. The limit hasn't changed for that type of account either.

Got the first (state), and lesser tax refund. Quite a nice chunk of money. I'm probably going to spend most of this tax refund on stuff and will save my federal tax refund for a rainy day. I think it's fair since my state refund is only about 35% of my total refund.

There's never enough time! It's already 10:30pm. What have I been doing all day? I've actually finished a few things on the left panel there, but haven't come around to writing them up yet.

Title: 少年マガジン (Shonen Magazine) Vol. 13
Issue Date: 3/10/2004
Publisher: Kodansha
Pages: 528

No Young Magazine this week as XXXholic is off and there's nothing too interesting. Next week however, is the debut of みなみけ (Minami-ke). Wonder if it's not too sickening.

This week's Shonen has a special 19 page one-chapter story titled UMA (Unbelievable Mountain Angel). It's quite short and follows the story about a girl and guy going into the mountains in search of a the mythical Tsuchinoko snake in order to claim a reward. They meet big foot and an UFO, with the ending being that it was made up story for a homework assignment. No Tsubasa this week, I guess CLAMP is on break from both magazines.

Suzuka: ＃２服部 (#2 Hattori): After breakfast, Yamato returns to his room to find 服部安信 (Yasunobu Hattori) in his room reading his magazines. Yamato has a long history with Hattori, and his aunt thinks they're friends. Yasunobu is quite the smooth character and is able to flatter and get any girl, even if it's at Yamato's expense. Yasunobu asks whose this Suzuka person living next to him, he response that it's an old man to prevent Yasunobu from getting any ideas, but Suzuka is right behind him and hears him. After dinner, Yasunobu shows up again in his room. This time, Yuuka and Megumi show up and Yasunobu uses his charm on them. At Yuuka's request, Yasunobu drags Yamato out to buy some persimmons. There, they see Suzuka dragging a new microwave back home. Yasunobu offers to help, but Yamato don't want him to influence her, so he offers to help. Yamato tries to flatter Suzuka, but he doesn't have Yasunobu's magic. After being criticized some more by her, he blurts out that his first impression of her was so much different than how she really is. He thought she was pretty cool when he saw her in the rain, but she's different in real life. Suzuka takes the first comment to heart.

Futatsuki: ６口目/予選開始 (Sixth Taste/The Preliminaries): Tsukasa, Hina, and Futatsuki are at the ramen competition along with a horde of other contestants. In order to narrow down the field, they are first quizzed on very arcane ramen knowledge like how long is an instant noodle, among other strange things. For all the questions, Tsukasa and Hina answer all the questions for the group. The last question is to determine the ingredients of a soup with only a sheet of paper that was dipped in it. Hina thinks she has the right answer, but Futatsuki says she's missing one ingredient.

Negima: ４４時間目　総本山へおこしやす　(44th Hour, To Souhon Mountain): Setsuna and the other classmates arrive to where Negi, Nokoda, and Asuna are and arrive at the headquarters of the Western Magic Faction. Asuna thinks this is the base of the enemy, but in fact, it's Konoka's home and the leader of the magicians is her father. Negi passes the note from the president of his school, the leader of the Eastern Magicians to him, and he declares truce. Afterwards, Setsuna and Asuna are taking a bath and get interrupted by Nodoka's father and Negi coming in for a bath. The girls hide and the guys start talking about Konoka's super magical powers that she doesn't know about and a bit about Negi's dad. Then, the other school girls come in and so the guy's hide. As they're hiding, Negi runs into Asuna and lands in a very suspicious position and is witnessed by the other schoolgirls.

Hamanaka Ai: ０２４　少女敵進化論 (024, The Ways of Femininity): Misaki has been acting very strange lately, tired and cranky. At the tutoring session, Rin, Nakamura, and Ai start talking about mensturation, in front of the oblivious Masahiko. They try to explain it to him using circumlocution, but to no avail.

Title: 少年マガジン (Shonen Magazine) Vol. 12
Issue Date: 3/3/2004
Publisher: Kodansha
Pages: 538

A new manga that I'm looking forward to! The title is 涼風 (Suzuka), and it's a serialization of the one-chapter manga that appeared in issue 51 last year. When I first read that chapter last year, I was thinking "this looks like the next Love Hina." It has almost the same type of story, and similar cast of characters. Since it's only one chapter, I'll do a wrap up of it.

The story revolves around a high school boy, 秋月大和 (Yamato Akizuki), who goes to live with his aunt, 藤川綾乃 (Ayano Fujikawa) and her daughter, 藤川美穂 (Miho Fujikawa). Ayano owns an girl's only apartment with a public bath and in exchange for living at the apartment for free, Yamato has to clean the place. There are three other female residents there, 早乙女優花 (Yuuka Saotome) the ecchi one, 松本恵美 (Megumi Matsumoto), the glasses-wearing gullible one (think Taeko from Ai yori), and finally, 朝比奈涼風 (Suzuka Asahina), the main female in the story.

On the way to Tokyo where Yamato is going to attend high school, he visits his future school and sees a beautiful girl practicing the high jump in the rain. He arrives at the apartment and meet the 4 residents. There's a little accident in the bath and Yamato gets in an awkward situation when he meets the girl again. Her name is Suzuka and is also a resident, much to his surprise. She attends the same high school as he will, but unlike him who just barely made it in, she got recruited for her jumping skills. As he is unpacking, he notices there's a hole in the wall of his room. He investigates and accidentally bursts through the entire wall; Suzuka's room is on the other side. Being the athlete that she is, she immediately dislikes the loser that is Yamato. As Yamato is cleaning up, she goes to the bath (which was postphoned because of Yamato's accident earlier). There, we find out that Suzuka has a lot of pressures trying to satisfy everyone and hopefully representing Japan in the Olympics (I guess). She passes out in the sauna and Yamato rescues her. She explains her problems with him, and so he helps her train. The next morning, they go practice. Yamato sets the bar at 165cm (her record is 169). She jumps it, but barely touches it. With this, her self-esteem goes lower until she sees that Yamato placed the bar incorrect, and she had actually cleared 173cm. Despite what happened previously, she seems to feel better.

Whew. It was a pretty long chapter, as most 1-chapter manga are. Can't wait for more!

Suzuka: ＃１大和 (#1 Yamoto) It's soon going to be their first day of school and Ayano wants to make something good for Suzuka and Yamato. However, she needs them to get the ingredients. So the next day, Suzuka and Yamato go out. After purchasing the items, Yamato wants to take Suzuka to an eatery that he used to like, except that it's now some sketchy parlor. He points out that one of the girls has the same name, Suzuka. Upon hearing this, Suzuka runs off and Yamato takes chase. However, seeing that the guy is carrying everything, he stumbles. He later takes up up to a Shrine where he prays and then opens up some packaged Croquette he got from the convenient store. He shares them with Suzuka and tells her that when he was a kid, he used to always come here, enjoy the atomsphere, and eat croquette. Suzuka admits to him that she's starting to like him just a little. After they go home, Ayano makes her treat and the other girls tell Yamato to lay off on Suzuka.

Negima: ４３時間目　魅せます！!八美少女優団！!　(43rd Hour, Charmed!! The 8 girls!!): The eight girls are eight of the Negi's students all who are witnessing the battle between Setsuna and this mysterious girl. They, as well as the bystanders, think this is all a show. The fight starts and all seven girls are involved in the battle because magic was cast and they all have something to fight, even if it's a stuffed animal. Meanwhile, Setsuna transforms paper-doll Negi into a ninja Negi and he takes Konoka, the eight girl to safety. However, the place he chooses has　another member of the faction waiting for him, along with Kotarou. With a beast by her side and with a bow drawn, the she asks Negi to hand over Konoka. Negi doesn't know what to do, but Konoka tells him that Setsuna will rescue them. A gust of wind comes and the arrow is released accidentally. At the last moment, Setsuna jumps in front and gets hit. As she falls off the building, Konoka magically leaps down to save her and heals her wounds. However, when she comes to, she can't remember what she just did.

Futatsuki: ５口目/３人目の仲間 (Fifth Taste/3 Companions): The rules of the competition are that they have to be in a team of three. Fortunately, the Hanamaru shop has 3 people, himself, the boss, and the boss's daughter. However, the boss suddenly collapses and the doctor tells them that he's in no condition to compete. So they try to find a third person, but to no avail. Until Hina appears, and in an twist of fate, she decides to help them win the competition.

Tsubasa: ３５　戻らない対価 (35,　The Trade that Won't Be Returned): So Kusanagi and Yuziriha aren't bad guys and are also monster hunters like Kuro and Shaoran. They enjoy a meal at Fye's new cafe and Yuzuriha explains the level of difficult of the monsters. Afterwards, Inuki senses another one near by so they leave to fight it. Meanwhile, Sakura tries to apologize to Shaoran for not remembering him. However, as she is doing so, she suddenly passes out. The contract that he has with Yuuko is that Sakura won't remember him, so that's what's at work. As soon as Sakura remembers him, she'll forget again.

Hamanaka Ai: ０２３　休日の人生相談 (023, Talking About Life on a Holiday): Masahiko and Misaki bump into their tutors, Ai and Nakamura. The tutors treat their pupils, and during their feasting, they talk about college life and that it's not all about studying.

Title: ヤングマガジン (Young Magazine) Vol. 12
Issue Date: 3/1/2004
Publisher: Kodansha
Pages: 474

More more Waka Inoue. Can't they get someone else? There's also a Morning Musume feature with the Sakura and Otome Groups of the MM.

XXXholic: 40: The start of a new arc. Kimihiro receives chocolates from Himawari on Valentine's Day. In return, he goes shopping for chocolates with Yuuko. At the supermarket, Yuuko sees a strange pair of twins. The next day, he sees one of the twins looking for her contact lens on the ground. They can't find it, and when Kimihiro tells Yuuna about it, she mentions to him that he wasn't bound to find it.