It’s not another ‘Best of’ list, really… (^_^;)

Ayu speaks and list down her favourite stuff from 2009!

Wow, we’re well into the second week of Year 2010 already.  Amazing how 2009 zooms by in an instant when one looks back at this time last year. I realized that I’ve been less than active over the last half of 2009. My new job has kept me rather occupied and I’ve less time for my closet hobbies (like blogging), so to speak. XD There are so many stuff I wanted to babble about but being mentally exhausted at the end of the day causes the lack of inspiration to write, which is why I didn’t post as often as I did before. Even so, it’s a nice surprise to know that people still drop by to check out my humble and ordinary blog. I want to thank you for doing so. Needless to say, I feel very bashful and grateful of course… (n///n)

I am aware that lots of bloggers have already came out with their ‘best of’ list of things that they’d watched, listened to, experienced etc in 2009. I enjoy reading a fair bit of them as they gave me an insight of what people’s interests were. Well, it got me to thinking about making a *favourites* list which I meant to post earlier but got delayed due to lack of time. Admittedly, I got somewhat inspired by a song from the musical ‘The Sound of Music’ called ‘My Favourite Things’. So, here is Ayu’s long overdue simple ‘List of Favourites’ of the past year in regards to tBP :-)…

Onwards with the image spam (>w<)

All things Manga 🙂

.::Favourite Manga Mag I subscribed to::.

COMIC ZEROSUM

ZeroSum >> Gfantasy simply because it published more of my favourite manga titles like:
Amatsuki, Are You Alice, Astrolabe, +C Sword and Cornett, Devils and Realist, Dolls, Di(e)ce, Fenrir Craft, 07-Ghost, Karneval, Landreaall, Saiyuki, Tousei Gensou Hakubutsu Shi, Ultra Black, Witch Cat…

That’s good enough a reason for me to choose and subscribed to ZeroSum. Anyway, I mostly read Gfantasy for  ‘Pandora Hearts’, ‘Kuroshitsuji’ and Nabari no Ou’ serialization. 😛 Ironically, I end up blogging on two of my favourite continuing manga series that are serialized in GF albeit on an occasional basis. If you patronize my site on a regular basis then you know what series I’m on about. XD  Guess I should pick a couple of titles from ZeroSum and post chapter updates.  Look out for some random babbling on Karneval then. (^_^)

Now then, this Jan’10 GF issue was a holiday pressie given to me 🙂

.::Favourite Manga That I Randomly Pick and liked::.

Until Death Do Us Part (死がふたりを分かつまで  Shi ga Futari wo Wakatsu made) by Hiroshi Takashige & Double-S

I picked up this action, drama and adventure themed seinen series for my ‘manga to read’ list last year and loved it. Have read all 10 volumes so far. The main protagonist Mamoru Hijikata is made of *awesome*, nuff said.  You can read the story’s synopsis *here* if you want to know what the plot is about. This title is serialized in Young Gangan magazine publication.

And yeah, Mamoru was also my favourite manga character of 2009 (*¬*)

**Image courtesy of Double-S

Two other noteworthy manga titles I picked and enjoy reading are…

the smexylicious Vassalord by Nanae Chrono

and sci-fi, mystery series Ilegenes – Kokuyou no Kiseki by Kuwabara Mizuna

Both are serialized in Mag Garden’s COMIC BLADE AVARUS.

.::Favourite Returning Manga::.

D.Gray-Man by Hoshino Katsura

Why am I still reading this one? I guess I want to know if Allen’s going to become the *end* boss. 😛

After a seemingly long hiatus at the start of 2009, Hoshino Katsura‘s D.Gray-man finally returned to publication and as of November last year, it’s now serialized in Shueisha’s Jump Square publication.

I’ll probably get back to doing some manga roundup posts on the regulars that I’m still following and share the extra manga scenes/illustrations from Pandora Hearts Volume 10 and Kuroshitsuji Volume 8, tankoubon versions.

Anime…or the lack of it 😛 (^o^)

.::Favourite Anime Series::.
My obvious top favourite of the past year was …

Zoku Natsume Yuujin-chou 続 夏目友人帳

I’ve said more than enough about Natsume Yuujin-chou in my coverage of S2. So I’ll just leave it at that. Bring Nyanko-sensei back purleeze…XD

and the other ones that made some good erstwhile impressions were…

Eden of the East 東のエデン

Golly, who can forget the *Johnnies* or the doggy with angel wings… XDDD The guessing game, the mystery, the numbers, social commentary, romance, wacky characters, Akira, Juiz, crazy bird woman, Kenji Kawai’s music…made for an entertaining show I’d say.

Aoi Bungaku 青い文学シリーズ

Great stories, plenty of drama, gorgeous visuals and animation…simply enthralled me (^_^)

Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~

The series didn’t have a happy ending which one would have expected but having said that, I never expected it to end the way it did either. I’m still dumbfounded by the ambiguity of it all…LOL. But the anime was sure one heck of a thrilling ride from beginning till the end. Additionally, Nanase Hikaru’s music gave the series a stylish mod feel.

Bakemonogatari

Now this anime made me laugh, sometimes for the wrong reasons…plus it has got one of the most feisty and bold anime heroines of the past year in Hitagi Senjougahara!!!

.::Favourite Wacky Anime Character (plus the V.A who voiced that character)::. *ROFL*

Xerxes Break (C.V. Ishida Akira) from Pandora Hearts ♥

I loved Break’s totally wacky, creepy, charming and mysteriously sneaky persona. Ishida Akira was completely awesome as Break’s voice. He definitely did a fab job bringing out Break’s colourful character to anime life. I couldn’t think of any anime character that came close to Break’s devilicious awesomeness. XD Well, obsessive Liang Qi from CANAAN won lots of wacky points too but nah, Break stole the spotlight for being an *all rounder*.

Let’s bring on the Ani-Music

.::Favourite Anime OP and ED::.

The OPs

Karma – OP1 to ‘Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~’ by Kokia, one of my favourite female artist.
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This has been my perennial favourite all year long in 2009. The stunning visuals and excellent intro theme were a winning combination.

Oyasumi Paradox – OP to ‘Natsu no Arashi: Akinai Chuu’ by Yakushimaru Etsuko
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The arty intro visuals and the thumping hot, smexy song made this quite a memorable OP.

Jap – OP to ‘Sengoku Basara’ by Abingdon Boys School
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And then there was this one…I just can’t leave out the dancing soldiers. A rocking intro song that worked amazingly well with fab intro sequence.

The EDs

Saga -This is My Road – ED to ‘Guin Saga’ by Kanon
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An epic ending theme to go with the gorgeous animation visuals.

Futuristic Imagination – ED to ‘Eden of the East’ by School Food Punishment
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I loved the animation technique used for the outro visuals and the theme is totally ace!

Zetsubo Restaurant – ED to ‘Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’ by Zetsubo Shojotachi
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Finally, a cute outro theme with a rather funny and quirky ending visuals…made me laugh quite a bit

.::Top 5 Favourite OP Songs::.

Song title: Aoi Hana
Artist: KukiKodan
Anime: Aoi Hana
Beautiful song with delightful melody. Nuff said.
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Song title: Mitsu no Yoake
Artist: Akino Arai
Anime: Spice and Wolf II
Another constant favourite of mine along side Kukikodan’s Aoi Hana.
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Song title: Kimi ni Todoke
Artist: Tomofumi Tanizawa
Anime: Kimi ni Todoke
Catchy and easy listening…and it’s sung by a guy xD
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Song title: Summer Rain
Artist: Kobukuro
Anime: Cross Game
One of my earliest favourite from 2009.
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Song title: Golden Time Lover
Artist: Sukima Switch
Anime: Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
Funky song is funky…yay!
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.::Top 5 Favourite ED Songs::.

Song title: Aishiteru
Artist: 高鈴 Callin’
Anime: Zoku Natsume Yuujin-chou
My favourite of favourites… too beautiful for words *sobs*
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Song title: Suteki na Kajitsu
Artist: Lisa Komine
Anime: Ristorante Paradiso
This song jazzed me up in the right mood (^_^)
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Song title: Ano Kaze Ni Notte
Artist: Pe’Zmoku
Anime: Valkyria Chronicles
Fun song is fun! Clappity clap xD
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Song title: Kioku
Artist: Younha feat. Goku
Anime: Rideback
Smooth Korean influenced pop-song!
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Song Title: Sou da yo
Artist: Megumi Nakajima
Anime: Macross Frontier: Itsuwari no Uta Hime (Movie)
I just had to have this lovely ending song on my playlist. That and I’m an MF fan. Ranka is ultra cute on the cd cover too. 😛
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.::Favourite Insert Songs::.

Song title: Palette ~Petit Short~
Artist: Kiyoura Natsumi
Anime: Ristorante Paradiso
Palette instantly caught my ears when it was used on one of Rispara’s episode. It’s on my relaxing mix and is my favourite of 3 inserts songs from Rispara.
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Song title: Sound of Destiny
Artist: Rina Ogata (C.V. Mizuki Nana)
Anime: White Album
Surprise, surprise. I actually liked this.
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Song title: Pink Monsoon
Artist: Sheryl Nome Starring May’n
Anime: Macross Frontier Movie: Itsuwari no Utahime (Movie)
Ok, there was a Ranka song and now there’s a Sheryl song.
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.::Favourite Anime OSTs::.

My favourite 2009 ani-soundtracks were the ones with the music that easily get stuck in my mind. Did I say that correctly? These were the music that constantly gets played on my music playlist. My selections do lack overly epic, dramatic, orchestral symphonic scores simply because they don’t exactly latch on in my mind as stand alone pieces. Why no Iwasaki Taku? Well, Kuroshitsuji’s soundtrack was my foremost favourite OST from 2008. What about Kajiura Yuki‘s compositions for Pandora Hearts? There were some good individual scores in both OST 1 and 2 but really, there were many more distinct variety in the other soundtracks that simply outshined her work for Pandora Hearts. Apart from my picks below, I should mention that Umi Monogatari’s Soundtrack by Ken Muramatsu continues to be a grower on me. I’m also loving Hikaru Nanase‘s work for CANAAN which I’ve gotten a hold of recently. Am still giving all 3 discs a proper listen. I wish I had time to upload some of the tracks from my picks below but heck…this will have to do for now. (^o^)v

Album title: Eden Of The East Original Soundtrack
Composer: Kenji Kawai

Easily my favourite of favourites from 2009. I love Kenji’s compositions. His music gave Higashi no Eden a movie-like, mod, urban feel. Oh Lordy, Lordy…Brenda Vaughn’s song is super awesome. But of course, I enjoyed listening to nearly all of the tracks… like ‘Naked Prince’ (*LOL*), JUIZ, Atatakai Ame and Futari de Te wo Tsunaide.

Album title: Basquash Original Soundtrack
Composer: Yoshikawa Kei

The anime could have been better but the music was fantastic. The compositions projected the funky, hip feel of the series rather well. Here’s one of the tracks that I liked a lot called ‘Street Life’.
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Album title: Aoi Hana Original Soundtrack ‘Sweet’
Composer: Takefumi Haketa

An incredibly *Sweet* OST that has got lots of understated, easy listening melodies..very appropriate for the mood of the anime they were composed for. For a sampling of selected tracks, check out Anime Instrumentality‘s review of the OST.

Album title: Ristorante Paradiso OST “Musica Paradiso”
Composer: KoKoYa

If you watched Rispara, you would know how the music succeeded in creating the right mood, ambiance and tone for the anime. Absolutely delightful *European* inspired scores. To get a sampling of the ost, check it out here.

.::Favourite Orchestral Score from an Anime::.

Summer Wars Overture
Composer: Akihiko Matsumoto
Anime: Summer Wars The Movie

Oh Gosh, what a rousing score this was for me. You can’t not feel awake and refresh after listening to such an absolutely fantabulous composition. This was and is still my morning call music, really 😀
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.::Favourite Old Ani-Song I rediscovered::.

~Kyou Wa Nani Iro – First ED theme song from TV anime ‘Grander Musashi’

**Click on the image to listen

I had totally forgotten about this particular ED song from an anime I watched way back when I was just getting into watching anime. The series is called ‘Grander Musashi‘, a sports fishing anime. I was searching the anime playlists for relaxing tracks to make a CD mix when I remembered liking Grander’s first ED theme. It was hard to find info on the song but I finally got wind of it from a fellow eSnipper. It’s one of my all time favourite ani-songs and certainly one of the most relaxing song to listen to. Can’t believe that it still sound so current and fresh. Brought back memories of watching ‘Grander’ as well…all those different fishing lures and crazy techniques that any kid would want to try out…XDDD.

Well, those were just a few of my favourite things which rounds up my first actual post of 2010. I would have included *favourite book* that I had read but I didn’t acquire any new fiction titles to read.  Probably need to check out some new books at the bookstore this year so I can include the ones I like in a similar but expanded post next year. Until then… I’m off to do a bit of catching up. 😛