Micro Anime Review: Ghost in the Shell Arise - Another Mission

The premise of the story: "Snatch the rebel elements' secret data using the Surface! There is a leak saying that the giant coporation Ishimiya Industry will commit an act of international terrorism, and Motoko Kusanagi and the Armored Riot Police head out to seize the plug data!" (Source: ANN)

Let's be real: it's a promotional video for Microsoft's Surface tablet. But for a promo, it's pretty darn shiny and entertaining, a lot more entertaining than the idiotic dancing adverts they keep showing in the States. And it's a decent refresher on who will be appearing in the latest Ghost In The Shell series, featuring everyone's favorite folks from Section 9 doing what they do best: hacking and kicking ass.

The story itself is pretty simple - get the info, stop some terrorists - that is given a extra veneer of importance due to the constant usage of the Surface device, which literally is thrown around from member to member in the course of the three minute promo. Honestly, I'm not bothered by the product placement, because it has got me officially ready to start diving into Arise and the adventures of a pre-GITS Kusanagi. And I'm pretty sure that was the point the whole time. Well, aside from selling tablets.

Ghost In The Shell: Arise has been licensed by Funimation for North American digital and home release; there's a page for Arise on the Funi site, but no release information seems to be available at this time.

Manga Review: Stepping On Roses GN 9

Stepping On Roses volume 9
Author: Rinko Ueda
Viz Media/Shojo Beat
200 pages

Sumi tries to get Soichiro’s company back for him, but she doesn’t realize that he’s about to embark on a life-changing opportunity. Meanwhile, Nozomu is hellbent on marrying Sumi regardless of any consequences. Can anything stop Nozomu at this point? Or will Sumi and Soichiro find a way to be together? (Source: Goodreads/Viz Media)

Spoiler warning: Review contains spoilers for the entire Stepping On Roses/Hadashi de Bara wo Fume manga series.

It's the end of Stepping On Roses, one of Shojo Beat's most entertaining series to date, and it's an ending well earned. Despite being melodramatic soap opera shojo, Rinko Ueda's Edo-era romance series has gotten plenty of dedicated fans - myself included - who have been waiting forever to see if Sumi and Soichiro's relationship will win out in the end. Will this be a happily ever after or a doomed love affair?

Fujoshi O'Clock (6/28/13)

What time is it? It's . . . Fujoshi O'Clock, the biweekly feature at Nagareboshi Review, when I bring to you the latest fujoshi-related news and reviews and various shiny BL-flavored things. Why? Because rotten girls need love too!

This week on Fujoshi O'Clock:

• The Manga Bookshelf posts their latest BL Bookshelf, including looks at new releases by SuBLime and Digital Manga.
• the manga habit has made additions to the fantasy BL manga list, such as titles by Kuku Hayate, Miyamoto Kano, and Tanaka Suzuki.
• Crunchyroll: Hoshino Lily has shared the twenty-year evolution of her art style. She's best known for her character designs on Mawaru Penguindrum as well as her yaoi/boys' love manga.

Reviews:

• Leroy at I Reads You reviews Blue Morning volume one by Shoko Hidaka, and its angle on romance makes it interesting enough to keep reading.
• Experiments in Manga reviews Manly by Dale Lazarov, an Original English Language manga about very masculine men that borders on bara. Warning: book cover is NSFW.

Am I missing your blog? Got some awesome fujoshi-related news and reviews you think deserve a shout-out? Poke me with a link and a bit of description over at my Twitter: @theseventhl. I'm always on the look out for more BL love!

The Story So Far: Bleach (Karakura Town Arc)

Bleach volumes 35-48 (White Invasion/Battle of Karakura Town)

Art/story by Tite Kubo

Published in English by Viz Manga/Shonen Jump

The plot continues to show the fight between Soul Society's group of Soul Reapers against Sōsuke Aizen's army of Arrancar, with the former defending Karakura Town, and the latter planning to use Karakura to invade and destroy Soul Society. The story will continue the fight between Soul Society's Soul Reapers and Sōsuke Aizen's Arrancar army as the former defends Karakura Town from the latter's invasion, while Ichigo and his group fight the arrancars in Hueco Mundo to rescue Orihime Inoue. (Source: Wikipedia)

Spoiler warning: Post contains spoilers for pretty much all volumes following the Soul Society arc. Read with caution!

Having recently finished the 50th volume of the Bleach manga with The Lost Agent story, I thought it apropos to reminisce about the latest story arc in the series, which covers the showdown between shinigami and Arrancar in Karakura Town, both fake and real. There was a lot of fighting and a lot of screaming and a lot of shiny bone masks, and in the end the good guys saved the day. Err, right?

A lot - okay, 95% - of this arc was fights. Either fights between a Soul Society shinigami and an Arrancar or between Ichigo Kurosaki and someone from Hueco Mundo, whether it be Ulquiorra or Grimmjow or Aizen Sosuke, the man who seemed to be set up as the final boss of the series. And if you get super jazzed about reading battles and seeing characters' various abilities and powers on display, than this arc was totally up your alley.

June News/Blog Round-Up Post

Like an Internet magpie, I gather up all the shiny interesting things and bring them to you. So, is this post like my nest? I suppose so!

• Yuri ni Boke shares about the yuri webcomic Princess Princess, in which a crossdressing princess rescues her fair maiden princess and they go on an adventure. It sounds like a great series! I already have the Princess Princess wallpaper; these girls are so cute!
  
• Ponta Abadi at Ms. Magazine points out what should be obvious but apparently isn't: women make up about half of all gamers. You never would have guessed if you had seen the Microsoft presentation at E3, which was dude central. Compare that to Nintendo, whose latest slew of video games had a wide variety of female protagonists (and oh my God, Wii Fit lady is already Pixiv-famous). Warning: post contains offensive slurs/language.
  
• One of my favorite blogs, Organization Anti-Social Geniuses, is looking for writers! They are especially looking for people who can blog about currently airing anime series.
  
• The Anime Nation News Blog has a brilliant idea for an anime series. It's got my tech nerd heart all a-flutter. I'd watch the heck out of Black Hat: The Animation.
  
• Lastly, the oldest surviving Japanese anime production has been recovered. It is called Mole's Adventure, it was originally aired on TV in 1958, and runs just under nine minutes. You can see screenshots of the short here.