I watch quite a bit of anime, but the number of series that truly, deeply touch me, series that completely captures me and my love, I can count on one hand. Gunslinger Girl is one of them, both the first and the second season, Il Teatrino.

Before watching Il Teatrino, I had read a few negative reviews about it that mostly focus on the change in production, lower qualities, and such. Further, with a lack of high quality English subs, I put this series off for a while until this Thanksgiving weekend when I marathoned the traditional Chinese subbed series. Watching Il Teatrino on the big screen late at night, drinking milk tea and eating tiramisu, I was just absolutely seduced by and engrossed in the world of Gunslinger Girl.

The anime I tend to love the most are ones that sets the mood and the atmosphere of the settings so well that I am able to forget myself and be simply immersed in their lives. Gunslinger Girl does this perfectly. Il Teatrino drips with strong Italian flavor. It pays special attention to the gorgeous cityscape, the details of the buildings, and the beautiful soundtrack. These all come together to create a fascinating and romantic world for the sweet tragedy of these little girls.

Of course, the girls of Gunslinger Girl are in the center of this masterpiece. Gunslinger Girl follows the lives of five young girls, who, after surviving brutal and tragic pasts, receives advanced prosthetics. Together with their fratello, the girls are trained to do various tasks for the Italian government. These young girls assassin people with no hesitation while desperately seeking approval, or even love, from their fratelli. With nothing else, Triela, Henrietta, Angelica, Rico, and Claes could only hold on to what little affection they receive. Although the rescues of these girls were merciful, each fratello realizes the cruelty of stripping them of their childhood and chance at a bright future or simply any future. Each fratello deals with this disparity in a different way. Jean distances himself from Rico, Marco tries but has a hard time letting go of Angelica, Jose treats Henrietta like his own sister, and Hilshire respects and loves Triela. Still, the futility of a better life for these child assassins is painstakingly obvious. The fratelli know this; we know this.

I love this bittersweet hopelessness. I shed quite a few tears while watching Il Teatrino out of both joy and sadness, sometimes at the same time. Triela deeply loves her handler, Hilshire. Although both she and I know that the romance will never be, we nevertheless are overjoyed at whatever affection and caring attention Hilshire shows. Similarly, Angelica and the audience are elated at any little triumph, even if those fleeting moments seem useless and pathetic in the face of a tragic life, failing health, and certain impending death. Il Teatrino succeeds in illustrating the tiniest light in this romantically bleak tragedy.

The soundtrack is just beautiful. Like the delicate series, the soundtrack by Ootani Kou is both subtle and classy, yet intense at times. Really just an amazing work. Both the opening by KOKIA and the ending by Lia are also amazing.

たった1つの想い (Tatta Hitotsu no Omoi) by KOKIA

GUNSLINGER GIRL ~IL TEATRINO~ Original Soundtrack – Main Theme
Composed by Ootani Kou

I tend to like most series I watch. I use “love” generously in my impressions. But Gunslinger Girl and Il Teatrino is an anime that stands above most others. This is a series I really do love, as I do Triela.

I’m in love with Triela and twin tails.

Yaaaaay!

Ah Famitsu, you absolute beauty. Everyone’s favourite Japanese gaming rag has revealed a slew of new Final Fantasy XIII screenshots, underlining the fact that the game is almost ready to ship in the East, then launching in the UK sometime in Q1-Q2.

Thanks must go to Square-Enix for giving us British gamers the last bite of the Final Fantasy apple time and time again. Much appreciated lads…

Anyway, Famitsu’s images of Final Fantasy XIII can be found here and I’d be happy to hear any thoughts you have about the title pre-launch as it’s my favourite game series after Streets of Rage. Let’s have it!

See the official Square-Enix E3 Trailer below the cut and be blown away by it’s brilliance.

www.nuts.co.uk

Grazie a Paul Wesley France per questi scans dal magazine “Dark”.

Ian compare sul nuovo numero di People dove ci svela alcuni particolari inediti della sua vita: la sua passione per Cary Grant, per il calcio, per il salmone e le sue sorprendenti doti in cucina! La sua vita ideale? Su una isola deserta con la sua ragazza, qualche libro, pescando e giocando sulla sabbia.

La rivista tedesca “Cinema” parla nel nuovo numero di Vampire Diaries.

Credits: Love Sucks

Sky Blade   v2

Already scanned these once, now scanning again in 400dpi.

(Low yet decent quality v1 amd v2 are in scans by Random Scans)

Ta difícil saber em qual foto ele ta mais lindo!!

do i owe my readers this?

Scans Tv navi de noviembre y diciembre

Noviembre

Diciembre

Y yo me pregunto…¿Por qué Ueda siempre va a los R-one con gafas de sol…? Este hombre…^^

Credits: snoew y snowaltz

Thanks to kyra for the scan!

Sigo sin encontrar el 107, pero bueno…aquí el 109

Credits: cb

Vampire Doll Guilt-na-Zan  v6 (I just noticed there’s a page missing from the zip. I will update link around tomorrow)

Damn I like this series. One of my favorites! v5 is already scanned and released. (v2 v3 v4 were rescanned too in 400dpi)

v1-v4 have been released by RitsuzenManga in HQ.

For the last couple of years, and more so the last 6 months, I’ve become a huge fan of Tazo teas. I’ve loved tea my whole life; grew up drinking it at least once a day when I was younger (before I was a coffee drinker) and even now, I always have a cup of tea before bed. Back then it was more simple. I was a kid, who just liked basic English tea.

In fact, one of my most favorite things to do is sit at my blog from 11:00pm – 1:00am with a hot cup of tea and write out whatever I want.

But moving on! Now however, I prefer more flavor variety. And it just so happens that my favorite teas are the Tazo teas. You can pick them up at your local Starbucks, and there are so many different flavors to choose from. My absolute favorite has always been the Passion flavored tea. It’s sweet and fruity, and I admit the bright purple color makes it different. I have to be careful with it because I’ll have 3-4 cups in a sitting. Another one I really enjoy are is the Zen Green Tea. It’s got just the right amount of mint to it, without it being horribly over powering.

So on Sunday (the 15th, not this last Sunday) when I was out with Jeff and Eric, we made a stop at the Starbucks off of Springdale and Westminster, and I had planned on stocking up on a new box of Zen tea (plus I wanted to see if they had plenty of the Passion so I could get that later). Well I found a new flavor I hadn’t tried before: the Berryblossom White. It smelled really good, with tastes of blueberry and white cranberry in it (according to the box + you could smell the scents). Since it was fruity, I figured I’d might like it since I loved the Passion so much. After my first cup on Monday night, I totally fell in love with it. Now hopefully I won’t go through my teas so quickly as I have a nicely growing collection of flavors. You can see them below:

I also picked up a brand new Tumbler. Now it probably seems stupid that I spend so much $$ on these Tumblers….but when you have to wake up at all hours for various doctor appointments, then you can whine to me about it. And only again if you try taking an open, hot cup of tea or coffee with you and yes you have to totally spill it in your lap.

Ok here it is, my sparkly new Christmas Tumbler:

I hope you can see that it’s really glittery (that’s what all those speckles are). It’s really nice. It may sound weird, but it really puts me in a holiday mood!!

For now, I still do not have any updates as to the result of my scans.

Now for some super good news people: I will not be going in for chemotherapy this week! That’s right, as of Monday my Oncologist’s physician assistant said I’d been given a reprieve from treatment this week so I can spend Thanksgiving at home!! This is perfect because Thanksgiving just so happens to be 1 of my 2 most absolute favorite holidays, and I’m feeling so great (plus I’m eating so well) that this is going to be just another normal Thanksgiving with no cares and no worries.

Except that it’s really not, because I have more to be thankful for this year than I ever had been before.

Even though, it is my personal opinion that Rob got the short end of the stick on his new umm… title via People Magazine.  In this month’s special issue, you can read that he was awarded in The Vampire Awards with “Best Hair” in the “Sexist Man Alive” publication.

Better luck next time, Rob, hmm?  You don’t need no stinkin’ magazine to let you know you’re sexy!  HA!  Like you even care, right?! LOL

Source.

Special Thanks:  RP Life

Oh, God.. not that picture.. of allll pictures, we are reminded of this one again… Yeah, you know the one I’m talking about.

Source.