Once springs arrives and the mild wind blows through cherry trees, the small pink petals let themselves separate from the blossom and fly away at the speed of 5 centimetres per second. Wait a few minutes and you'll see how distant those petals have become. Such is the reality of life even for us human beings. As we grow older we realise that is impossible to live on a standstill and we need to move forward. Obviously this has some implications both on an emotional and on a practical level. We may have to separate from people we used to be with every day and distance as well as time may affect us and the relationships we with our loved ones.
This is basically what 5 centimetres per minute is all about . Crunchyroll is currently offering a freeview for 24 hours only to celebrate the Makoto Shinkai's global day. I read the message by sheer chance yesterday and I'm so happy I did because this story is really worth watching.
The graphic is simply stunning, the scenery accurate to the detail is simply breathtaking. The story is divided in three episodes which are interconnected as they narrate different moments of our protagonist life, Takaki

We meet him when he is young, just in junior high and coping with the departure of Akari - his closest friend, a girl for whom he has developed feelings he cannot express - the year before while also preparing for his own move away from Tokyo and to a remoter part of the country. We then move to Takaki at the final stages of high school, preparing to move on to the next stage of his life and completely, blissfully ignorant of the feelings Kanae, a girl in his class has for him. Finally, we meet Takaki again as a young adult, twenty six and giving in to disillusionment. ( source http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/5-centimeters-per-second-review/)

My favourite episodes are the first and the third one as I found them to be the most emotional from Takaki perspective. The second one was very intense but it focused mainly on Kanae's struggle. Having said that I have to admit that plot-wise the ending of part 3 left me unsatisfied. Maybe it's just me being a total sucker for happy endings (I held my hope and my breath until the very end the last scene at the cross level was killing me..) I felt all my emotional involvement to Takaki and Akari's love story was a bit betrayed. ;_;

On a different note, I really love the music soundtrack in particular the song "One more time, one more chance". by Masayoshi Yamazaki. below you can watch the anime finale which features this track. The song wasn't created specifically for the anime. This is an old piece and was selected by the director just because he was looking for a song that that the Japanese audience was familiar with. The whole purpose is in fact to represent life and reality as we know it. The images used also refer to objects, scenarios we see everyday and thus look familiar to us . Images and the music fits just perfectly together and the emotional impact of the editing just add more beauty to it.



Overall is definitely worth your time even if you are a (hopeless) happy endings fan like me..

It's been a while since I updated my ipod tracklist so here's a small selection of my newest additions.

The first track is a piece by one of my favourite artist Ludovico Einaudi. Einaudi is becoming increasing popular in movie scores and Tv soundtracks lately. This doesn't suprise me sonce his music is absolutely beautiful . The piece I am posting now is entitled "Inizio" which means "Beginning" in Italian. This is another of my lucky finding off YouTube. *To get the Mp3 click here*

Inizio - Ludovico Einaudi



The second track is called "First love". This is a piano version of the song by Utada Hikaru, and also the opening song to the jdrama, Forbidden Love. I listened to the original version and although i find very nice i prefer the instrumental by far. I love this piece and I can't stop listening to it as it makes my sappy hopeless romantic heart melts all the time. This is a video a found on YouTube ( with the link to get the mp3) the version I have is slightly different . if you'd like to listen to it just click here




The third track listed is entitled "Prayer". it's a very magical song by Hayley Westenra. This song belong to the soundtrack of a nintendo wii game Endless Ocean. I am not a fan of the game itself but I am truly becoming obsessed with this song.





About the fourth track, I am not really sure why I didn't get this before as I absolutely adore the music and the film which it is scored in. Probably the fact that after the film came out this music was basically everywhere kinda put me off for a while. But listening to it again today made me remember how powerful this piece is. The title is "Comptin d'un autre ete" by Yann Tierson and yes, this is the soundtrack of the film " Amelie". After all these years I still haven't found a movie equal to Amelie in terms of originality and emotions. Amelie is one of my all time favourites.
To download the music just clik here


Comptine Dun Autre Ete-LApre - Yann Tierson



Ah now we start with the oldies. Phil Collins ( sorry Phil) and "Another Day In Paradise". Well the beauty of the music itself is already a good reason why I love this tune. Then I also have a memory attached to the lyrics. the text of "Another day In Paradise" was in my english textbook ( learning english from songs does really help to learn the language @@) At the time I didn't know the song (I don't know i was probably living under a rock or something ) but I ended up learning the lyrics so when I heard the song on the radio for the first time I recognised it immediately and I was completely blown away by the beauty of the music.




Another Day In Paradise - Phil Collins


Last but not least it this great song by Portishead entitled "Undenied". I thought that after hearing "Glory Box" I couldn't hear anything better but my this song is pure greatness. The melancholy and the sensuality of the music just drive me insane. Surely this tune deserves a post of its own and will definitely have one as I am planning to post the lyrics plus a link with the downloadable version very soon...stay tuned. The one below is a live version to get the CD version just click here ( rename the file adding .mp3 after the download ^_^)





undenied (live) - portishead

Before seeing this gallery I used to think that the BGI story in Hokkaido was set in an imaginary location somewhere in the region . I mean, yes the white fanbook already show us that some locations actually exist in real life (like the picture of train station or the harbour) but I can't recall any of the character mentioning any particular town name in that region. Hence my idea of an imaginary settings with locations borrowed from real life towns just like sometimes happen when shooting a film ( or at least in the films shot in my hometown or nearby). It turns out that in this case the locations refer to a specific town in Hokkaido called Kushiro. I still don't know whether Yuuki Obata is from Kushiro herself ( wiki doesn't mention her ) but she must have lived there for a while or at least known the place quite well.
Well it looks quite obvious that these pictures were taken by a fellow BGI fan as they show the exacts places almost in the same perspective as they appear in the manga. I can't hide this had a bit of an impact on me since until a while ago these places were as real as the characters themselves *wonders if there is a photo of real life Yano and Nanami* XD
Anyway to give you an idea I decided to post a few pics of the real life locations as well as their manga counterpart. Just to clarify, these picture are not mine. The one I posted were found on google image and I merely attached the manga drawings to them. For the full gallery, please refer to sleepynicky who is the actual poster and creator of the pictures. All the credit goes to him/her. ^_^
So ladies and gentlemen here you are some interesting sightseeing from Kushiro. As you can see many of the pictures refer to chapter 11. On the top we have the volume cover and then on the right there are the locations described by Yano when he was imagining to journey to see Nana. ( here Yano was being extremely accurate with the directions ^_^)

Below we have another interesting location which refer to one of my favourite moments in the anime ( I still haven't found the English manga for this part of the story so I can only enjoy it in the anime version)
I am not sure that this is always Kushiro as the picture description only mentions Hokkaido. Nonetheless the authors must have thought of this park when they created the eternity scene ( as I call it)


I wonder what it is like sitting in that very bench and reading the story ...

Exciting, this is the only word that comes up in my mind when I finished reading this chapter. The chapter has not been scanalated yet but on mangafox someone posted the english translation plus a link to what I believe is the chinese raws so here we go .
first and foremost a big thank you to the person who posted and obviously to the person who translated it. , as I was saying this pretty exciting especially if you are a Len+Kahoko shipper like me .. Len is so serious and confident when it comes to music but then he completely looses his cool when it comes to people , especially to Kahoko. I reckon it must have taken a lot of courage asking to walk her home let alone having a conversation along the way. Of course He couldn't even mention the fact that is going to study abroad ( he tried once but failed miserably) but at least he got to have a day out with Kahoko and behave like a normal guy(for once!). That meat buns moment was terribly sweet although I wish he could open up a tid bit more to her ..but like he admitted himself he doesn't "know these kinda stuff very well"
By the look of it Kaohoko looked very happy by Len's offer as well. For I moment I thought, wow all this enthusiasm concentrated on Len ...could this mean perhaps that she's getting closer to him? But then I realised that she was focused on him even because the other characters were virtually absent all along the chapter.
Well, we get to see Tsuchiura towards the end ...and trust me, he likes to be straightforward . What he doesn't like is Len's attitude towards Kahoko, in particular the fact that he couldn't tell her he's leaving soon to study abroad. Tsuchiura knows very well the reason, although Len never admits it clearly, and this is making him very angry ( as well as very jealous of Kahoko!!). In facts Tsuchiura tells him he likes Kahoko. Len is speechless. In fact The chapter ends with a close up of his shocked ( yet beautiful ) expression.
Links to the raw of chapter 55 here. For the translated text click part1 first and then part2

SO wow, Let's continue our vampire themed night with another great discussion about Vampire Knight (of course). Finally chapter 48 is out *yeah* so go rush to read the chapter here ( once again many thanks to Sagakure for scanlating and posting so quickly record time..wish we could have this speed for BGI too!!) At any rate, Zero's presence in this chapter is basically next to nothing but the story progresses in a very interesting way.

The chapter revolves completely around Luca and Cain ( and obviously Kaname) which made me pretty excited since I like Luca a lot ( probably there aren't many Luca fans around but whatever) We get to learn Luca's unrequited love for Kaname ( and Cain for Luca) from the very beginning ( cute the scenes when they were just kinds) up until the events during their stay in the night class. I can't help but liking Luca a lot especially the way she always ready to protect Kaname and sacrifice herself for him ( although she knows that the only person in Kaname's eyes is Yuuki). How can't you adore the young Luca when she sees Kaname at the party wolfing down blood tablets to tame his hunger. She looks so cute when blushes and says something like "I would have given my my blood if he was OK with it so he doesn't have to go with them ( the blood tablets)" and years later at the Cross Academy when she offers Kaname her own blood ( which he drank until she fainted making Cain very pissed off about the entire situation as a result!!!) yes i like Cain a lot too especially in this part when he gets all jealous with Kaname and then goes to look after Luca. We have a sort of odd love triangle here since both him and Luca are in love with someone who don't reciprocate their feelings. Enough with the spoilers, go and read the real thing!!

Do you think you know flatmates from hell? You may want to think again..
Idiotic jokes aside, if you haven't watched this series yet I highly recommend it. This drama has the most entertaining and original idea I have seen in a long time. In a nutshell, "Being Human" is about three twenty-something characters sharing a house in Bristol, trying to lead a normal life, despite being a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf. I think the creators have done an excellent job with this series as the episodes are very down to earth and original. We may be dealing with the supernatural here but it's never surreal. Plus there is a lot of comedy which balances very well the dark aspects. Honestly the horror is very minimal which is obviously a bonus to me since I am not a fan of the genre.
The main characters include ( source http://www.bbc.co.uk/beinghuman/characters/ )


Annie, a talkative ghost lacking in self-confidence and desperate for company. Annie is still pining after her boyfriend, whom she was due to marry before the fatal accident that left her with her ghostly affliction - and who happens to be the landlord of their flat.

George,battling with his double identity as a mild-mannered and geeky hospital porter who for one night a month is transformed into a flesh-hungry, predatory werewolf.

Mitchell, an extremely hot looking young man who, unlike George, has a lot of luck with the ladies. He is a vampire who is trying to kick the ( bloody) habit and understandably he is constantly struggling to tame his blood lust ( I can't deny that I like Mitchell a lot because he reminds me of Zero a little *blushes*. Besides, they are both good looking although each in their own way ^_^ * vampire team*)

If you live in the uk you may know the series very well so there is no need for me to tell you that the episodes are broadcasted on BBC3 and are also available on iplayer here. Unfortunately the pilot is no longer there though ;_;
If you live outside the Uk and you'd like to watch the episodes aired so far (we're up to episodes 5) you can go here (which is also good if you're after the pilot episode )

Episode 6 will air on March the 1st and I am really looking forward to it. Here's a small spoiler from YouTube *happy*

Although very short, this is one of my favourite parts from volume 12. Why? Probably because after pages and pages of misery and suppressed feelings, we finally get our heroes to admit thay haven't forgotten about each other which is kinda reassuring considering what we've been reading up to now..

The chapter starts with a very interesting scene. After the flashbacks included in chapter 46 and 47 we are back to the present time, so the events continue follow the story from chapter 45.

Take, still in his office working overtime, receives a call from Aki-chan. He is pretty excited about his plans for tomorrow ( which is Nanami's birthday) . Apparently Aki has some important news for him . We are not told exactly what she says but from Take's speechless expression we understand it is something quite serious ( I bet it has to do with the meeting with Yano...however I don't know whether she just mentioned that or the fact that she told Nanami as well...*sweats*)
The scene moves to Nanami, alone in her bedroom. She is lying on her bed thinking about the conversation earlier with Aki . in chapter 45, Aki revealed her regret: losing Yano especially the way she did. Aki admitted that she wanted to be more than a friend to him but then again she knew that the only person precious to Yano's heart was Takahashi ( which she envied so much). Even so she regret her inability to help him when he needed the most. Unlike Takhashi ( which was unaware of the situation) She was there when his mother died yet she wasn't able to say or do anything to comfort him.
On that occasion, Nana listened to Aki's confession without replying a single word ( was she just shocked by Aki's honesty or trying not to let her guard down?). Now, She seems to respond to Aki's words with her own confession.

You know, this is how I would put it, Aki-chan.
It would have been better if we hadn't met.
It would have been better if I hadn't come to know him.
His smile, his voice, his gestures , the feel of his arms, all of it.

Tears runs along her cheeks as she pictures memories from the night at the school festival . the memories of Yano at the school festival finally unveil Nana true feelings. Although she decided to get on with her life (and be with Takeuchi) deep inside she is still waiting for Yano ( was Take's terrified expression earlier referring to this unspoken truth ?)
(Now the part I love the most!!) The scene continues on the school festival flashback . However Nana is not there anymore. In fact this time, we are inside a classroom. There is nobody but Yano who is looking for some glue (to fix the stone on Nanami's ring). When he finds it he moves towards the windows and looks at the crowd students celebrating outside. He smiles to himself when he finally sees Nanami and rushes outside to reach her. When he gets closer enough someone shouts
" Motoharu". We see Yano lying on the bed with the eyes wide open. *aaargh*
the person shouting Yano's name is Dai who is sitting in the kitchen with the rest of his family. Yano is lying on the bed still and we can read the following words

The tears won't dry up. Probably, forever. [...] Even if the wound heals.. It still remains

Yes, we are back to the 18 y.o Yano after the troublesome night out with Dai. In fact we see him working as swim instructor teaching his class breathing techniques which explain that

You don't have to force yourself to inhale. If you exhale, then naturally you'll inhale after. It's more important to exhale than inhale.

So that's how it works ( bet you're trying that now..lols yeah I've done it too ). Yano is now sitting alone in Dai's bar . He is at the phone and the person he is talking to is Nanami's mother. She tells him Nanami is now studying in Tokyo and she hasn't returned home still. Nana's mum gives Yano Nanami's new address and then asks about his mother. He (lies )says that she is doing fine but tears fall down silently over the piece of paper on which he was writing Nana's address. He then ends the call with the promise of coming and visiting again like he used to do.

Tears still roll down while he recalls an image of Nanami at the school festival.

So here it is Yano's attempt to breath. Although very painful I can't help but loving this part. Finally we get to shed a small light on Yano's feelings and understand how hard is for him to live without the person he loves the most. Parting from his past and particularly from Nanami is not an easy thing to do. Probably this is the reason why he couldn't bring himself to call her directly. If he did he wouldn't have had the strenght to let her go again. I wish we could read more soon to understand what's really going on in his mind there are so many unspoken feelings and for now I can only go on with my own assumptions.

Here's the link to the chapter summary. Many thanks to nervous Venus who took the time to translate it.

just a happy memory of valentine's day

Now I remember why I don't like jigsaws. These things are supposed to be relaxing and help free up your mind..relaxing? it was driving me insane!!!!. It took me hours to finish it and didn't give up just because I am way to stubborn to quit halfway through but these things are pure evil!! Anyway I am glad I got at the end of it and here I put a picture here to show off like trophy for defeating the bad bad game!!
Want to give it a try? Click on the button under the small picture and enjoy the fun!! ( mwahahahaahah *evil laugh* )

Right since we still have no news about the release of chapter 52 ( and the scanlation of chapter 47 isn't up either) I shall talk about the white fanbook. Unfortunately I can't go too much in detail since the book is entirely in Japanese so unfortunately for me.. I can't read it.. having said that I really enjoyed the bonuses and the pictures included. At the beginning we get an introduction page for each character ( including Take's sister and Yano and Nana's school friend). You get all the general info plus a brief description and key-words. There is also a brief recap of the main story up to Yano's departure ( i think that the fanbook came out after volume 9). Then we get some fun and cute pages dedicated to our character style. let's face it, no matter how sick and lonesome our heros may get..they never fail to loose their fashion sense ( yes, Yano I am looking at you!). I absolutely adore the pages with the tips to get Nana's hairstyle. I really like her hair and the different way she styles it. So i thought it was such a cute idea to dedicate some pages to her look!! ( aww I haven't posted it before but there is also the hairstyle sported with the yukata at the summer festival!!)
A big plus are the bonus short stories "Run baby Run2" ( Run baby run 1 was published in volume 9) which shows one of Nana and Yano first dates ( lols)and "Confessing the blues" a story focused entirely on the male characters.
Then we get to the photo gallery. We get to see Obata sensei's studio in Hokkaido (!!) as well as some locations which were featured in the story ( the train station, the school, the harbour)
Brilliant, It was kinda of a shock noticing that those places really exist!!! XD
The last part include a brief review of the ups and downs of high school life like money ( or lack of in Nana's case XD) going out with friends, drinking and so on.
Another thing worth mentioning is the section dedicated to Lalami, a small gallery featuring everyday life, really really cute.
Anyway, I have uploaded some scans for you. Feel free to download, view, repost them wherever you like. If you credit will be even better.
I am desperately looking for the translation of the two short stories. If anybody who knows where I can find them will become my all time hero. If you know Japanese or someone willing to translate or summarise the stories I will be happy to re-upload the scans in better quality!!

Now to the white fanbook this way

You know, I have always thought Nanami is a really cute girl. i really admire the way she dresses ( even when she's not wearing a yukata *lol*).But most of all I like the way she always come up with such cute and different hairstyles . And guess what ? Among the other thing the BGI white fanbook gives you tips and pics to get Nana's hairstyles. ( Oh oh i got my own copy of the fanbook only a few days ago and I am going to post more of it very soon yeah..!!***squeals of joy**) Anyhow, I really wanted to post this first because I absolutely loved this part. So if you people like her hairstyle too all you need to do is just to take a look at the scans below ^_^ ( and if you can read Japanese you can also follow the instructions!!) Oh and click on the thumbnail to enlarge the scan!!