Category Archives: Manga

The “Hana to Yume” manga line hits 50

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Angel Sanctuary Fan cel by keeper | Photo: Rekka’s Cel Gallery

As the Hana to Yume line of manga hits 50 this year,
let’s reminisce over a couple of my favorite titles!

Clearly, for anyone who knows me, the number one title that strikes a major cord with me is none other than Angel Sanctuary!

My relationship with Hana to Yume manga is rather limited, but the connections I’ve made have been life long. So, I’d like to dedicate this space to my appreciation toward one particular series that has attributed to half of my personal moniker…

▶︎ Hana to Yume Titles

There are many titles under the Hana to Yume umbrella that are unknown to me, but I’d like to at least express my appreciation to all the titles that I have at least the faintest inkling of…

  • Glass Mask (1976-1997)
  • Here is Greenwood (1986-1991)
  • Please Save My Earth (1986-1994)
  • Angel Sanctuary (1994-2000)
  • Fruits Basket (1998-2006)

I don’t really know much about Glass Mask, but I at least know some of the music from Here is Greenwood. Here are a couple of the themes that still are precious to me:

Neither of these songs seem all that familiar to me, and I absolutely cannot find the song that I used to really love, so I guess that needs to wait for next time!

Most especially, Angel Sanctuary was a series that took up a great portion of my high school days, and I have to attribute half of my personal moniker to it. I’ve always dreamed of having wings and as such been drawn to characters with wings… so this series was easily picked up by my radar. I don’t care too much about the themes that it’s trying to convey throughout, but the very basic structure between humans, demons, and angels will always appeal to me. I’ve even commissioned a fan cel of my favorite character from the series, which you can see as the top image in this article. I’m not exactly sure if they are still producing fan works, since this was well over 20 years ago, but anyway…

Originally by Yuki Kaori, Angel Sanctuary is a story that follows the life of Setsuna Mudo, who appears to be the human reincarnation of the Seraph Alexiel… The story gets way more complicated as time goes on, but I’d suggest checking this one out if you’re a fan of divine fantasy (dealing with angels and demons).

The manga was adapted into a 3-part anime OVA which was really well done… it’s just unfortunate that they’re not able to tackle the entire series as a whole and could only cover the early chapters of the story. It would have been really interesting to see their take on the later sections.

The opening theme “KNIFE OF ROMANCE” by ΦPhl is also one of my favorites! Check it out!

▶︎ Related Links

Doraemon Dorayaki Headphones

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Check out this new AirPods MAX online exclusive from CASETiFY, featuring designs from the classic manga and anime, Doraemon!
And be sure to check out all the other exclusive Doraemon goodies from CASETiFY!

▶︎ 13,750 yen
▶︎ Free Shipping Worldwide

▶︎ Related Links

Reminiscing: Honey and Clover

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Oh boy! Reminiscing about old anime and manga gets me thinking about the music that I’ve come to love because of it! Below Rekka’s gonna gab a little bit about the Honey and Clover TV series from 2005. Wow! Has it really been that long…???

▶︎ Overview

Honey and Clover is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Chica Umino. It was serialized in Takarajimasha’s shōjo manga magazine Cutie Comic from 2000 to 2001, before being transferred to Shueisha’s josei manga magazines Young You (2001–2005) and Chorus (2005–2006); its chapters were collected in 10 tankōbon volumes. The series depicts the lives and relationships of a group of art school students who live in the same apartment building.

An anime television series adaptation by J.C.Staff was broadcast for two seasons on Fuji TV. The first 24-episode season aired from April to September 2005; the second 12-episode season aired from June to September 2006. It is also the first show to premiere on the Noitamina programming block. The series was also adapted into a live-action film premiered in July 2006, and two separate live-action television dramas in 2008, one broadcast in Japan on Fuji TV from January to March 2008, and the other broadcast in Taiwan on CTS from May to August of the same year.

Wikipedia

Speaking of the TV drama, I remember watching this as well, although I thought that the anime told the story much better. Still, I was a fan of Toma Ikuta at the time, so… yeah. He was also in another drama with Satoshi Ohno from ARASHI, a series that had the soundtrack composed by none other than Hiroyuki Sawano! You can find the soundtrack here on Amazon.

I’m finding so many weird connections right now, it’s not even funny…!! We’re gonna have to reminisce about multiple things in this post, but let’s get back on track first with Honey and Clover.

Looking at the cast list again, I realized that Hiroshi Kamiya played the role of Takemoto, the lead character, but this was before his motorcycle accident, so his performance feels quite a bit different here than after. He has such a great voice, and his older performances feel somehow unique and young (obviously). Plus, Tomokazu Sugita played the role of Mayama.

▶︎ Music by Spitz

▶︎ SPITZ – Yoru o Kakeru

It was this show that got me really into music by SPITZ, and I especially loved the vocals by Masamune Kusano. He has such a gorgeous voice, I can listen to him sing for hours. And back when I was still living in Nagoya, I went to one of their concerts and absolutely sobbed when they played the song below, “Yoru o Kakeru”.

https://open.spotify.com/track/6cJXx1rxJKNWxobeGWSb8A?si=37ab809bcf884cc2

▶︎ SPITZ – Sakana

▶︎ SPITZ – Supika

▶︎ SPITZ – Gerbera

Another song of theirs that has remained a favorite of mine, although I’m not sure if it played in the Honey and Clover anime, is the next song below, “Gerbera”.

▶︎ Other Music

▶︎ SUNEOHAIR – Waltz, Honey and Clover ending theme

▶︎ ARASHI – truth, opening theme song to the 2007 drama 魔王 dEVIL

I found the first episode on YouTube, so I’ll share it below. Just watching a little bit of this again after such a long time away made me remember how funny of a show it was. I really miss it. Maybe I need to watch the whole thing again sometime soon!

And regarding animation production artwork, I managed to snag this gorgeous set many years ago of one of the best scenes between Morita and Hagu. So happy!

▶︎ Related Links

Discovering new things about our favorite series is shocking to say the least

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Rekka’s gonna go fangirling in this post, so be prepared for some major geekage.

You have been warned…!

This is going to be an entire fanatic post, but something curious just occurred to me and it’s sort of freaking me out. Have you ever had a show or series that you loved to death and pretty much know everything possible about it… only to suddenly discover something that you’d never known or heard about? I’m sort of beside myself right now…

One of my all-time favorite manga/anime titles, B’t X, is a little-known series by Masami Kurumada, the man responsible for Saint Seiya. Interestingly enough, B’t X was one of a handful to be published in the first issue of Monthly Shonen Ace in 1994 along with other titles like The Vision of Escaflowne and Macross 7. It never occurred to me that it was even featured on the cover of the first issue… and yet hardly anyone knows or have heard of it despite this. Apparently, however, it seems that more obscure or more minor titles were published in Shonen Ace, for example, compared to Shonen Jump.

Some other famous titles that started out in Shonen Ace:

  • Evangelion
  • The Record of Lodoss War
  • Brain Powered
  • Angelic Layer

But no matter how many times you’ve read or watched your favorite show, I suppose somethings are inevitable to fall through the cracks. For example, the following:

This has me absolutely stumped and I’m wondering why I never noticed it before– or maybe I did and just forgot about it, which very much could be the case. I have the entire manga at home, although not these original copies of the Shonen Ace magazine. I know there are differences between the manga and the anime, since the latter had to wrap before the manga was finished 3 years later in 2000.

Then again maybe he just messed up…

I’m also super shocked to find out that some Blu-ray set was released at the end of last year. It appears to be region free, which typically Japan doesn’t do, so I’m afraid it’s a bootleg of some sort. Some more research will have to be done, but I’m still super interested…

▶︎ Additional Photos and Such

▲ This is one of my absolute favorite opening sequences and I couldn’t be happier to have several cels from it. The great Masaaki Endoh from JAM Project sings the opening theme.

▼ Here are a couple more shots from the manga:

▶︎ Related Links

“Chaser Game” Vol. 8 & 9 out today!

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Those of you in Japan, head over to your local bookstore and pick up the next two volumes of CyberConnect2’s manga series Chaser Game! Vol. 8 & 9 are out today!

The manga that has been released digitally on the Famitsu website has been released in paperback today, in the form of two new tankoubon volumes, Vol. 8 & 9, available for 792 yen each.

▶︎ Where to get it?

▶︎ Paperback – Amazon Japan

▶︎ Digital

Chaser Game Vol.8

Chaser Game Vol.9

▶︎ Related Links

Thanks, Famitsu.