Akagami no Shirayuki-hime chapter 63: LOL at all the banter in the beginning (both with the trio and with the letter).
Also, the research on that glowing plant seems to be getting pretty interesting...
Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun chapter 61: Bwahaha, them trying to learn about smartphones and then ending up just playing with cups and string...
(Also LOL at the mini 'love story' when the other classmates borrowed it! <3
)
The Heroic Legend Of Arslan chapter 21: Oh man, between Gieve's antics and the 'squished into one room' bit, this chapter was quite amusing.
And it was good in other ways, too, with all the stuff about
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: discovering the sleeping drug before it took effect and then using it on their traitorous hosts in return, etc. Kimi to Boku. chapter 31: ROTFL at everything with the twins.
(Also Chizuru's excitement about the Polaroid camera + the poses he made everyone do.
) And aw, the end was so sweet with Chizuru and Mary...
Pandora Hearts chapter 103: This chapter was *awesome.*
(I mean, I'll tell anyone who will listen that I think the entire series is a masterpiece; however, this chapter in particular contains *multiple* Crowning Moments Of Awesome all at once, and I loved it to pieces. <3 )
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Those fantastic moments included some from Vincent, both Alices, Oz, *and* Leo-- *twice*! <3 <3 Other comments I have on this chapter (including some more about said moments ): Ah, so that's the plan on how to stop the destruction of the world-chains. Leo was just amazing through this; all of his character growth up until now leads to (as mentioned) not one, but two Crowning Moments here-- first was his complete and utter awesomeness in making Levi help him through sheer force of will , and second was that equally-awesome in-your-face retort to the 'rest of the story' comment. Then there was Vince helping Gil + his also-excellent continued character growth (and Gil's amusing {and, later, quite adorable} reactions to all of that). <3 And ('B-Rabbit'-)Alice's dramatic entrance + declaration of rescuing ('Will'-)Alice was great, too. Oh, and I am really relieved that Oz (in his real chain form) is still there and in control of himself and able to communicate with everyone. <3 (And, again, Gil's reaction to *that* was adorable, too. <3 <3 ) And we finally got to see what Oz' conversation/'deal' was with Jack, which was pretty interesting. And then to see Jack *finally* telling the truth-- finally showing his real self (and even he was surprised at this)-- combined with ('Will'-)Alice's response ("here you are, at long last")... that was surprisingly moving. And then, finally, there was that equally-emotional ending to the chapter... oh man, so Oz formed a contract with Alice, for the purpose of 'destroying' her (severing her from the core)? Someone hold me... It's not long now (perhaps one or two more chapters + possible extras) until this fantastic series comes to a close; and I fully trust that it will be just as well-written, emotional, and downright awesome as I've come to expect. <3
Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii chapter 27: Ah, of course! Nike hadn't fully understood everything that was needed to complete her song in that country until now-- the landscape, the feel of the place, the true mix of emotions. And now that she fully understands... <3 Also: I'm glad that
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Livi doesn't seem to be going nuts like I rather expected him to (well, at least yet, anyway ), and he noticed the rainclouds, so he knows that she's still alive. Let's hope that this arc ends well! Spirit Circle chapter 33: Wow... this chapter was excellent!
(Which is just as to be expected, of course; you know what I mean, though.
)
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: LOL, oh man, it was so amusing (and cute) seeing the personality from Kouko's past life shown in the previous chapter have an effect on her present self , and Fuuta's reactions (both his own as well as his previous personalities') in return , along with the reason for their shared happiness (humanity actually isn't completely destroyed by that future black hole disaster, as evidenced by the patched-up robot <3 ). There was some interesting, if a bit opaque, info about the time-plane and souls and such here, too. And wow, I was not expecting that revelation at the end about Kouko-- that her Fortuna-time-period past life (also named Kouko) has actually mostly taken over! (And also basically confirming that *current*-{mostly-buried-}Kouko does like Fuuta back. <3 ) I also somehow hadn't noticed that Fortuna was actually Fuuta's *first* life, so when that was stated here at the end of this chapter that was another surprise (although, of course, it does make perfect sense). THAT CLIFFHANGER, though... I CANNOT WAIT to finally see Fortuna's time + how this magnificent story starts to tie everything up! <3
Oresama Teacher vol. 18: This volume was excellent. <3
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Oh my gosh, the (fake ) test-of-courage walk was hilarious. Moving on to the newest mini-arc, seeing Kanon being nice to a guy-- in fact, I'm pretty sure that was Kento! -- was quite nice. The last 'enemy' (aside from Miyabi himself), Momochi, seems pretty interesting (if a bit nasty), what with all the hypnotism stuff. I'm also super interested to (eventually) find out what exactly those 'secrets' are that she got out of both Mafuyu and Hayasaka. Also: The bit with 'kidnapping' Miyabi was both hilarious and also *really* interesting-- so he's playing another game/has another 'bet' going with someone else, does he? That's another thing that is going to be interesting to find out the details to. And the *third* interesting thing is the stuff surrounding Hayasaka-- not only that little reveal about him almost being conscripted into the student council, or the connected investigation into the reasons why Miyabi picked who he did (Hint: It's actually for their benefit!), but also Hayasaka's *newest* memory issue, thanks to Momochi. (Random thought: I wonder if the picture wallet thing is connected to that? I'm not entirely sure what the flashback/flash-forward timeline is here around the vacation, and whether or not the return of the picture-wallet happened before or after it. It certainly seems like this volume marks the first time Momochi hypnotized him, however, so if the mysterious picture-wallet-memory-blank was part of it, it would've had to have been returned afterwards. Or maybe that was indeed an issue before she ever got to him? Either way, though, something is up with that, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what it is and why. ) Anyway, regarding the hypnotizing thing, I liked the fact that at least Hayasaka realized pretty quickly that something is very wrong with him; now he just has to open up about it to the others. Finally: Oh my gosh, the Okubo x Minato adorableness (in the 4-koma extras) was off the charts!! <3 I ship them so hard... <3 And
Etsusa Bridge novels 1-4 (main series complete; there's still one more volume of 'side stories' to go {which will be excellent if his other works' 'side stories' are anything to go by}, however it'll be a little while before that one's fully translated, so as soon as the main chunk of the series was done I just dove in right away regardless
): *takes deep breath* YES, MORE NARITA-SENSEI~! <3
As an avowed mega-fan of this man's works, this has really been my year <3 -- there's the three-part
Durarara!!x2 sequel anime, Yen Press' announcement (and upcoming 2015 starting release date!) of an official translation of the
DRRR!! novels, and now *this* series being finally fan-translated in full (well, again, minus most of the bonus novel yet, but you know what I mean
). Now, interestingly, this does have a bit of a different feel to it than his other series, especially at first; also, only several of the characters in the first volume are his trademark variations of eccentric/broken/nuts (although there *are* more that show up from vol. 2 onwards, which-- probably not coincidentally
-- is where the series really starts to kick into high gear
). Basically, this little series (and its first volume in particular) is like a slow burn (building up to that great
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: "the hero was truly standing" moment near the end of vol. 1); and not only do the last few books expand the characters excellently, they also build up to the grand finale even better--
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: seriously, that "living legends" bit? Couldn't have put it any better. Granted, all that said, this is not quite as downright fantastic as
Baccano!,
Durarara!!, or
Vamp! (any/all of which I would recommend reading before getting around to this); however, it should pretty much be expected that even a lesser work from Narita will still end up being great, and this series is certainly no exception to that rule.
(Let's just say that when a personality-shifting girl who dual-wields chainsaws, an unhinged killer with the ability to manipulate his
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: brain's "clock rate" yet who assures himself that he's normal, an ex-cop who stops bullets {
...and
SPOILER: Highlight text to read: breaks swords!} with his hands, and a rather-dysfunctional brother-sister 'detective' duo are the most {genuinely!} loveable characters, you know that all is right in the Naritaverse.
) Looking forward to finishing off the last few extra stories in this series as they're translated!