A few months ago I started collecting stats on the traffic coming to Soliloquy in Blue. Today I was poking around discovered some amusing things in the list of search terms that had brought people here. Happily, none of them were creepy and disturbing.

MOST COMMON:

“Twilight review”
This is the most popular search term by far, representing about 6% of the people directed here from a search engine of some kind. It almost makes me want to read the sequels to help drive up traffic, but I like my braincells too much for that.

Where can I read ____?
It’s called a book. You can buy one or check it out from the library. Crazy concept, I know. If I added up all of the entries in this category, they’d probably eclipse Twilight.

People looking for actual soliloquies
Most of these are pretty normal, though some stand out, like “most profanity in a soliloquy,” which I assume is some kid who wants to swear in class and get away with it. Others can’t even spell the word: “siloquy on twilight” (nope!) and “siloliquy on twilight” (try again!), for example.

People with a book report due tomorrow
These procrastinators want me to do their work for them. Examples include “who are the main characters in the book the king’s arrow,” “theme of life as we knew it BOOK,” and “point of view in anne of avonlea.”

THE RANDOM

papillon swanjun
Wow, someone specifically wanted what I said about something! That’s kind of awesome. (Also, there’s only one of these.)

arrancar boob chart
Um, what?

nicholas sparks writes bad books
No argument here!

Share your own kooky search term experiences in the comments below!

Thank you again to all who responded to my first plea for help deciding what to read next. Although the battle was fierce, Antique Bakery emerged victorious.

Although I certainly liked Ōoku very much, I fell in love with Fumi Yoshinaga in a major way with Antique Bakery. I can imagine how Danielle Leigh felt to discover her greatness, as I am now compelled to read everything else of hers that’s been released in English, and soon. And although I liked the food details more than Sara K., I must agree about the awesomeness of the Gay of Demonic Charm, though really each character is lovable in his own way and could probably use a hug.

You can find my review of Antique Bakery here.

I do still intend to read the runners-up in the near future, but lately I’ve found myself with a particular hankering. You see, I realized that nearly all of the shoujo that I read—even those with fantastic or supernatural elements—takes place in a modern-day setting. I want to read some shoujo that takes place somewhere else. Somewhere more medieval, with perhaps some kingdoms and urgent quests and things going on!

To that end, here are the five series from my collection that I am struggling to choose between. If you’ve got a particular favorite, or simply think one will provide the sort of story I’m craving, then please chime in and let me know about it! Whichever option has the most supporters will be the one that gets read and reviewed.

1. From Far Away — The longest option on the list at fourteen volumes, From Far Away is the story of a modern-day schoolgirl who gets whisked away to another world. It’s been in my to-read pile for ages.

2. Apothecarius Argentum — An ongoing series about a princess and her poison tester. It’s from CMX, and many of their fantasy options look tantalizing.

3. Key to the Kingdom — What do we have here? More fantasy from CMX! This is the story of a male heir that must fulfill a quest before he can claim the throne. Complete at six volumes.

4. Fushigi Yûgi: Genbu Kaiden — I admit that Fushigi Yûgi has flaws, but I still loved the original series anyway. Plus, I’ve heard this prequel—ongoing but currently on hiatus—is better!

5. RG Veda — To be honest, I’m not terribly excited at the prospect of reading RG Veda; I still haven’t gotten over the traumatizing memories of the criminally boring OVA episodes. Still, I like CLAMP and this is an important part of their development as manga artists, so I really should read it. Complete at ten volumes.

The advent of free and legal streaming anime is upon us! Even though I no longer consider myself much of an anime fan—outside of a few nostalgic favorites—it’s hard to resist the lure of a free (and legal!) opportunity to see how some of my favorite manga series have been adapted for the small screen.

To that end, I visited three websites offering streaming anime and checked out the first episodes of Ghost Hunt, Skip Beat!, and Honey and Clover, all series I have enjoyed in their manga form. Here are the results!

Ghost Hunt — Ep. 1 “Evil Spirits All Over!?, Part 1”
How I watched it: subtitled
Where I watched it: FUNimation Videos

When high school student Mai Taniyama breaks an expensive camera belonging to Shibuya Psychic Research and injures the boss’s assistant, she is drafted into becoming a substitute and enters into the world of ghost hunting. Rumors of strange accidents abound about an old, abandoned building on school grounds and the principal has hired several notable mediums, exorcists, and researchers to get to the bottom of what’s going on. This first episode introduces the characters who’ll be working together for the rest of the series, but doesn’t get much beyond that to the meat of the case in question.

The first thing to strike me was the quality of the animation. One of the big flaws about Ghost Hunt as a manga (itself an adaptation from a series of novels) was that Mai’s character design was liable to change dramatically from volume to volume. The anime has chosen a style closest to her latest manga incarnation, and it looks quite attractive. Additionally, another character who was always supposed to be pretty finally merits that description.

The case itself doesn’t play as creepily as it did in the manga, though there are definitely some attempts to promote a spooky vibe, like the fabulous orchestral opening theme. It’s too bad the closing theme is so plain by comparison.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with this adaptation. As near as I can remember, it follows the manga faithfully and even improves upon it in some ways. I’m not sure it excites me enough to keep on with the rest of it, though.

Skip Beat! — Ep. 1 “And the Box was Opened”
How I watched it: subtitled
Where I watched it: Crunchyroll

Kyoko Mogami has come to Tokyo to lend support to her childhood friend Sho in his bid for stardom. And by lend support I mean slave away night and day to pay for his expenses, do his laundry, cook his meals, et cetera. She thinks they’re special to each other, but when she overhears him telling his manager what he really thinks of her, she loses it and vows to get her revenge.

This seems like a pretty accurate adaptation of the beginning of the manga. Some of the comedy bits are a bit too loud and zany for me, but I can’t complain much because those elements are in the manga, too. Kyoko’s transition from accommodating to vengeful is well done—it looks a bit like a magical girl transformation sequence—and I actually rather like her voice so far, even though I’d heard from others that she can come off a bit shrill.

I don’t really like Sho’s voice, though, and find the music boring and the animation sloppy at times. Still, this is the one series of the lot that tempted me to proceed directly on to episode two. The prospect of seeing Kyoko’s auditions and acting jobs animated sounds pretty appealing and I simply must see Lory.

Honey and Clover — Ep. 1 “I Saw Someone Fall in Love for the First Time”
How I watched it: subtitled
Where I watched it: Hulu

Honey and Clover is the story of a bunch of students attending an art college. In the first episode, sophomore architectural student Takemoto meets freshman Hagumi (hereafter referred to as Hagu), the daughter of his professor’s cousin, who has come to the school to study. She is tiny, dainty, and shy and Takemoto is instantly smitten. Meanwhile, we’re also introduced to some other students whose romantic woes will play a bigger part in the story later on.

Rather than adapt manga to anime in a straightforward way, the creators of the Honey and Clover anime have done something a bit different with the material, seeking to reinterpret it with Takemoto’s solitary bicycle journey (which doesn’t happen until volume five or six of the manga) as a framing device for the early events of the series. It’s an interesting and thoughtful choice. Unfortunately, their changes also extend to the insertion of unnecessary scenes, like one in which Hagu (quite literally) runs into Yamada.

Ultimately, despite its innovations, the anime of Honey and Clover is the one I like least of the three, and that is likely because the manga is the one I like best. The difference in tone is too great from what I have imagined for me to really enjoy it.

Also, I must add that this series probably has the strangest opening credits I’ve ever seen. You’ll never look at a shrimp cocktail the same way again.

I like to think I’m a well-read manga fan. I’m interested in a variety of genres—drama, mystery, action, sports, romance, fantasy, supernatural, et cetera—and I’ve even read the occasional title I wasn’t all that interested in for the purposes of a review and felt that I was broadening my horizons by doing so. It’s not manga, but heck, I even read Twilight! It is exceedingly rare, therefore, that I will give up on something partway through, but that is exactly what happened when I recently tried to read Mao-chan by Ken Akamatsu.

I’ve had problems with Akamatsu before. I admit that I’m not a big fan of the shounen harem romance story to begin with, but I did try to read both Love Hina and Negima! in the past and couldn’t get past the first volume of either. The latter, in particular, was so disappointing that it inspired me to write the following Amazon review back in 2004:

So, what we have here is a scene. Take a 10-year-old boy, surround him by girls, then spend 200 pages recycling the same dumb stuff to show off undies and boobs galore.

Now, it’s not that I am anti-fanservice. It’s usually just a side note to some plot, and that’s okay. But when it’s taking the place of the plot, it gets problematic. It seems like every five pages, one of the teenage girls is tripping over something so they can sprawl over Negi.

Several times, I contemplated just giving up reading it entirely, but I’d already invested time in it so I stubbornly persevered. I will not be following the rest of this series.

Sadly, only 6 of 17 people have found this helpful. Nobody likes a critic, alas.

My point is, though, that even though I didn’t like either of these series, I at least managed to finish the volume. Why was my experience with Mao-chan different? It’s not even a shounen harem story! Plus, I had both volumes, so there was the lure of the satisfaction of completing a series to compel me to carry on. And yet I couldn’t. The idea of spending even one more precious second of my life reading about a trio of wacky old guys, each boasting about how his eight-year-old granddaughter is the best one to defend the earth from cute aliens, was unthinkable.

Was the moe the problem? Partly, but I think the greater issue was simply that I couldn’t see in it the same things others saw. People whose reviews I respect—like Katherine Dacey and Ed Sizemore—have enjoyed the series and described it as “a funny and insightful satire of Japanese culture.” I did try to see the series in that light, but failed utterly; it just seemed inane to me. I must conclude that I simply do not grok Ken Akamatsu.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is there some creator or series that everyone else seems to like that you simply just don’t get?

It’s time for a confession: I am a terrible hoarder. There are so many awesome series being released these days and so I buy them, but because I don’t read very fast (and also read other things, go to work, have a life, etc.) things tend to pile up in a rather alarming way. My self-imposed rule about reviewing each volume separately wasn’t helping matters any, either.

Now that I have finally managed to convince myself that it isn’t “cheating” to review things en masse, I’m ready to tackle a few of the shorter but complete series that I have sitting around the place. Trouble is, they all look equally wonderful and I’m not sure where to start. I could use some marching orders.

Here’s where you come in. Every couple of weeks, I’ll post five options that I think I could be in the mood for. I’d love it if you’d chime in in support of your particular favorite, and maybe say a little bit about why you love it. Whichever option has the most supporters—or perhaps merely the most eloquent and persuasive ones!—will be what I undertake to read and review before my next post of this ilk.

So, here we go with this week’s options.

1. Parasyte — The eighth and final volume of this sci-fi series has just come out. They certainly look spiffy in my (not so) little pile!

2. Paradise Kiss — I know, I know. What kind of Ai Yazawa fan am I, anyway? I did read the first volume once a long time ago but inexplicably never continued.

3. Antique Bakery — And now I’m truly hanging my head in shame, because although I think I’m only missing one of Fumi Yoshinaga’s English releases, I’ve been woefully remiss on actually reading the durn things.

4. After School Nightmare — I had better read this soon or else I’ll end up getting spoiled!

5. Planetes — A sleeper hit about a team of space debris collectors that seems to offer a greater focus on the characters rather than traditional sci-fi trappings.

See what I mean about tough choices? Please ease my burden and give me some direction!