Nayu's News #259 Autumn catch up

Mizuki from Aikatsu! looking gorgeous as ever at night

 

 November has marched along mostly to me having a lot of poor sleep which was not very fun. It's why I decided not to catch up with October reading and playing lists, to give myself grace. Starting to sleep a bit better, kind of, which is nice especially as the weather is getting distinctly colder which my body hates. Busy with gaming or TV watching. I am getting back into the habit of watching anime daily as my rest time, which is fun for sure! 

 As for my laptop charger. My laptop is old, and in the next few years I will need a new one. For a long time whenever I use it the charger gets crazy hot, like so much so I feel it could be a safety issue. Last week I ordered a new one, not too expensive, thankfully. And you know what? It is so much cooler that I have to wonder what on earth was wrong my original one. It's been on a few hours and is cool to the touch apart from a slightly warm area. This is in stark contrast to the so hot I feared it might set on fire older charger. So if a charger is heating up, I advise getting a replacement. Maybe it can be cleaned if you a techincally minded person. I'm not and I don't want to electrocute myself thus a new charger happened!

Hope you all are having a good week start to autumn!  

Sakura from Aikatsu!

 

Over On Nayu's Crochet Dreams #65 Ramadan 2022

 

Find out which anime I'm currently watching too!

 Check out what I'm up to this year from Ramadan on Nayu's Crochet Dreams

Over On Nayu's Crochet Dreams #64 Explained absence

unamed heroine in anime series Amnesia

 To find out why I've been quieter than I hoped check out my post on Nayu's Crochet Dreams. 

Thoughts on news about the anime Aiktasu! series

 

Aiktasu! Title ( Mizuki = purple hair, Ichigo = blonde, Ran = brunette, Aoi = blue)

Time for a different type of post. Today on Twitter I spotted something that made me groan. I love anime. I happen to adore the music idol anime Aikatsu! which has several series now. My favourite, and possibly my absolutely favourite anime of all time is the first series, Aikatsu! with 4 seasons of engaging characters learning to become entertainment stars, full of much humour, pretty outfits, catchy songs, and some hardship. 

 

 (Yume)

 I have seen quite a few of the second series, Aikatsu Stars! focusing on the protagonist Yume in a completely different idol school. It has more hardship and annoyingly features vague romance, something I liked being absence in Aikatsu! which was simply girls having fun, working hard and being friends (and rivals). 

 

 

 Then there's Aikatsu Friends! series which uses a different protagonist, although I think it may occasionally feature it includes the first series lovable Ichigo and the second series' Yume. 

I think the tweet I saw was for a fourth series, which for me uttered a most dreaded word: Live-action. Apart from Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson, I am not a fan of turning animated movies/shows into live action. The seven season series Once Upon A Time featuring fairytale characters is an execption because it is not a direct 'port' (for lack of a better word) of a specific film. It is entirely different and I highly recommend it. 

 

The current fashion of turning everything into a live action version fills me with dread. I am sure some are very well done. However, if I see an anime, the anime is the reason I love it. Having anyone else try to be those characters, no matter how good they are at acting or how realistic the costumes and scenary are, they can never be that anime for me. A prime example is Winx Club a favaourite Italian series of mine which is animated, and has had some stage shows which I unfortunately caught clips of online and constantly work hard to erase them from my memory because for me it was not Winx Club.

(Winx Club season 4 Believix transformation)

 I only watch the first 7 seasons of the show because season 8 is more like a reboot, it changes a lot and in my view spoils all the fun of the previous seasons which I love flaws and all.

Having an Aikatsu! series which is part live action and part cgi animated feels like an abomination. I am sure it will be well acted, and well executed, but there is no way on this earth I will watch it. Ever. That is my view on the subject. Time for lunch and then some proper Aikatsu! watching. Original is best!!!! Nothing can beat my love of top idol Mizuki....

Nayu's News #245 Winter continues

Haven't used this pic for a long time! I'm thinking it is sort of wintry with the scarf

Hey guys, I hope you were ok if you had snow last week which brought part of England to a halt. For once we were in the crazy zone with lots of snow and chaos ensued as it always does. It was pretty, and got melted away by rain. Oh this is being posted simultaneously on my other blog, Nayu's Crochet Dreams to save me time and energy.

(This is just for this blog, but I've somehow missed out the 243 post to my Nayu's News series - easier to skip it than add it back in out of order!)

View from my bedroom window during the snow sprinkling

Because of all the weather I'm having my super strong meds a bit earlier than I normally do - my body really hates snow. So there won't be a blot post for a week, which I know is currently the norm (I'm truly sorry for that, I hate not posting much), but I need the rest to get over the initial side effects of my meds. Unlike my cat I can't just sleep through winter! 

As always, I can be found on Twitter @Nayuleska I tend to tweet a bit less during my mediine down time, only because initially I do get pretty hyper and don't want to be repeating myself or gushing over a game too much. 

The familiar green Yoshi comes in many other colours, but this is the most well known.

I am hoping that we've had our coldest time of year. Our winter usually does come in February rather than December, but I'm praying that's the only insanely cold spell.Warmer weather = bit more energy + can concentrate on stuff = more craft! & other stuff in general. Until then, it's reading and gaming for me. And anime.I'm having so much fun with my game rental service, currently on Yoshi's New Island on the Nintendo DS (or 3DS, can't quite remember) I want to complete it so I can play the next game in the series, and then hopefully the new one out this march! The next one is based on yarn so I'm very eager to play it. The little green dino is adorable, especially the way it can eat enemies and turn them into eggs that follows wherever it goes. 

Love Obelix (left) and Asterix! )

I've got a nice mild romance series to read, along with a pile of Tintin and Asterix books. As for anime, I'm watching the usual favourites of Winx Club and Aikatsu! which I always watch. I'm rewatching Neo Angelique Abyss, both seasons, but in looking it up online I discovered there's another spin off series: both anime series are spin offs from a game series. I'm on episode 5 of the one I haven't seen, and while the rewatch will always have a special place in my heart, the new one is pretty good, and I understand why certain things happned in the one I've seen now I know more backgorund info.

See you on the next one!

Rozen Maiden volume 1 by Peach Pit (Manga, Young Adult, Fantasy, 10E/10E)

May 2006, Tokyopop, 192 pages, Paperback, Personal copy 

Book summary from Publishers Weekly on Amazon 

The genre of "awkward young man meets bizarre/supernatural/extra-dimensional/space alien female and all manner of wacky hijinx ensue" has been endlessly rehashed, from the prototypical Urusei Yatsura to countless knockoffs, including Peach Pit's own DearS. This volume goes down that familiar path, adding only a slightly more sinister edge than its predecessors. Jun is a high school dropout who spends his days ordering items from the Internet and sending them back for laughs, but his feeble prank backfires when he receives a "Rozen Maiden" named Shinku. The doll comes to obnoxious life when wound up by a key inserted into her back. Instantly treating Jun with disdain, Shinku attempts to groom him into her manservant while revealing that the antique mirror owned by his parents is actually a doorway into the "N-Field," the nexus of alternate realities. Charged with protecting the living doll by "the Spirit Hollier," Jun and Shinku embark on a transdimensional odyssey, the purpose of which will presumably be made clear in the next installment. Peach Pit's cutesy/goth manga art is coupled with a story that hits all the usual notes.

Nayu's thoughts

Sadly I only have this volume in the incredible series that I first saw as an anime. It can get a bit creepy, but overall it is a fun read, looking at what life is like for shut-ins who feel they can't face the outside world for some reason so literally don't leave their house. I adored the anime, primarily because of how cute Shinku is-just look at her gorgeous dress! She and the other Rozen Maidens who are way more than a living doll have similar styles but immensely different and strong powers. I like how Shinku has her own tiny tea cup, how she can run out of energy then needs recharging (if only I could recharge my energy low body in the same fashion). 

This is what Shinku looks like when Jun first gets her, so sweet and gentle. She can be those characteristics, but not that often!

Just like the anime in the manga it is funny how obsessed Jun's sister whose name I've forgotten becomes with Shinku, trying to take care of her every need, and being overly enthusiastic about it. While I'm not 100% comfy with Shinku treating Jun as her slave, I like watching their bond grow, not just because of the ring that's a symbol of their relationship which keeps them together but Jun genuinely cares for her and wants to make sure she is ok. Having his own toys attack him is on the creepy side, but what he does to later fix one is a touching moment. He may have a lot of issues to deal with but deep down he has compassion for others which hopefully one day he can give himself.

There is a lot of humour, both from how Jun/Shinku/Jun's sister interact with each other, how Shinku learns about the world including her mistake in the bathroom, how Shinku is so particular over tea preparation, how much Jun's sister dotes on Shinku that it balances the darker and weirder parts of the story.  I think I prefer the anime because the manga is a little different (& not in colour...) but overall I love it and look forward to collecting more in the series one day! 

Suggested watch

Another anime which is similarly convoluted although doesn't involve living dolls is Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning I've seen the anime but not read the manga. 

Over on Nayu's Crochet Dreams #42 Ramdan is here!

Head on over to Nayu's Crochet Dreams to learn about Ramadan, what I'm doing in this Islamic Holy month, and what it's all about!

Note: as usual apart from books I've already committed to I'm not reading romance stories during Ramadan. Due to life stuff including technology requiring several hours of update making it impossible to post up reviews before Ramadan I'm a little behind on my reviewing, so over the next few days there will be a lot of books with romance appearing, but that's something that needs to be done. Most of the reviews were written before Ramadan, it's simply a case of putting the posts together. Since God created the technology errors and a poor health body I'm fairly sure He will understand ^u^

Over on Nayu's Crochet Dreams #36 Update time!

Love Acchan from AKB008 (especially when Nagisa becomes the next incarnation!)

For today's post head on over to Nayu's Crochet Dreams for what I'm up to and when the next blog post is coming (very soon, I promise!). 

Nayu's News #234 The Photobucket Issue

Me this morning (no idea which anime it's from)

This morning my craft blog, Nayu's Crochet Dreams looked absolutely fine. A few minutes later, and I had the most awful background ever, making my blog virtually unreadable thanks to the font settings having been set for my custom background. 

This was ghastly and very distorted.

I didn't know what to think. I checked my Blogger gadget, which seemed ok. I thought it may be an issue on the designer's end, so I messaged them but we are in very different time zones so didn't get a reply yet. However, I then Googled it, and it turns out this is a humungous issue for all who used Photobucket for free. Search on Photobucket, then check out the news articles to see what the problem is. 

To put it simply, Photobucket looked after images for free for many blog users (and other users too). They kept them safe in the internet. Apparently there have been emails about the change...but it was buried in a load of legal speak, so even if you read the email (I know I didn't, as I ignore Photobucket emails since I didn't think I used it much), you couldn't find the info unless you had oodles of time to read it. They now won't host for free, all the pictures are gone, unless each user pays $400.

Fairly sure many users will be feeling like this girl is.

That's is insane. I'm fortunate in that as far as I'm aware the only image I had on photobucket was my beautiful craft blog background: 

Having it as plain white isn't fun or my style. However, I got off lightly. There are lots of tweets about the Photobucket Issue, with bloggers having hundreds and thousands of photos that they need to change. I'd be devastated if I was in their shoes, which is why I don't mind having a white background for now until I can figure something out. It's a fairly low priority issue for me now, until I'm caught up with blog posts, but I know I'm one of the lucky ones. I hope that somehow Photobucket allows people to recover their photos so they can find another company to store and share their images on. 

If you've been affected by the Photobucket issue please do share what happened, and what you are now doing to resolve the issue. 

Not entirely all sunny now.

Other news - summer weather is no longer here. We are getting lots of rain, and had a storm last week, both which my body reacts bady too hence lack of blog posts recently. I'm doing them slowly! Unfortunately the Photobucket issue took up a chunk of time today, while I figured out what was happening. Lunch time now, followed with the usual afternoon rest anime session, then probably some gaming & reading!

 

Been listening to Aikatsu songs while I blog, including one of my favourites feature Kokone and Miyabi Love Like Caramaliser which can be found here on Youtube

Nayu's News #231 Countdown time!

Tick, tock!

At the time of writing this (Friday) I was on a review schedule spree to tide me over while I'm in la la land (taking/took my lovely strong ketamine for pain medication Friday lunch), plus when I'm up in Norfolk! Yes, a week today I'll be driving across the country to visit a friend I haven't seen for 4 years. We are both super excited, which I suspect will get me through the super long drive. It's worth the immense fatigue for several days after (which may not fully kick in until I'm back home). Plus according to the internet is only 40 miles further than my friend in Devon, which comparatively isn't that much further. 

"Really?" Yes, really! Haven't used this pic for a while!

Over the next few days while residing in la la land I hope to game a lot and read a lot. Whether that happens is a different matter as I have to go by how my body feels. Gaming will happen more when I'm at the climbing the walls stage - I so wish I was joking, but there's a reason drugs are illegal unless prescribed through a specialist, the negative side effects are unpleasant! 

Will be playing & watching a lot of Aikatsu! because it's one of my top anime shows! Next episode will be meeting Madoka (& Rin) who has adorable pink hair & is the Angely Sugar designer's grandaughter (one of the cute clothing brands).Aikatsu! Always makes me smile & feel better!

I hope you all have a super bank holiday weekend if you're in England! & a pleasant normal weekend if you're elsewhere.  

Over On Nayu's Crochet Dreams #18

Unfortunately none of my doctors/nurses were Yukirin from AKB0048 anime!

...find out why this week has been full of medical appointments!

I love Yukirin! Here she is singing (with Mayuyu's hair beside her - Yukirin is often with Mayuyu)

Anime Review #1 Winx Club: World of Winx

New look to the Winx!

 November 2016, on Netflix, by Rainbow, Magical Girl anime, English version, 9/10E & 10/10E

So far I've watched up to episode 6. I initially wasn't going to watch this at all, because from the clips and graphics I'd seen it didn't look my style. It's a different style to the main Winx show, not as cute looking. 

Here are the girls about to transform to Mythix fairies! season 6

 

Closeup of the girls' faces in season 6 (Bloomix power)

However, I saw it on Netflix so figured I'd give it a go. I was hooked! The only issue is the graphics, as the new style makes the girls look really mean a lot of the time, which isn't fun to see. The opening song suggests a lighter show, which it isn't. Yes there is the usual humour (got to love Stella!), and some say this is better than series 5-7 which apparently 'lost' the feel of the original characters. I have to disagree with that completely, the girls always remain themselves, yes sometimes they were slightly different to earlier seasons but they are growing up and experiencing different things, so of course they are going to act differently. 

Stella in WoW with her magical sewing thingy which I've no idea how she explains it works to human. She doesn't look quite like the Stella I'm used to (that's accounting for all the style changes through seasons 1-7)

Plus, and I realise a lot of people can only watch the English version, but I think the French version is better, preserving the original feel of the Italian show. I saw both French and English version of seasons 5-7 (not all the seasons but enough episodes to form this opinion). The English version changes the feel of the girls. Stella doesn't feel like Stella, the words that get used in the English version completely change the feel of the show compared to the French one (there's one I distinctly remember in season 6 where a remark gets made about a mobile with connection to the web, and the English version was less Winx-like than the French version). 

 

Bloom with Kiko (season 6 or 7)

So for me World of Winx is a great show, I can see how it is pitched to an older audience (less cute transformations, no pixies, no cute animal companions, NO KIKO! It is so weird seeing Bloom without Kiko! I mean I know she's travelling, but Kiko adds a lot of humour to the show, and I'm sure he'd have his uses). I realise she is undercover but she never even sees her adoptive parents either, and they live in Gardenia (so why people don't recognise them as fairies is an indication it's an alternate dimension of Winx Club)

New WoW transformation!

Graphics and darker themes aside, as ever Winx shows are pure coolness! The Dreamix transformation gives me shivers as every single Winx transformation does, although compared with the original show I'd really like more flourish with the magic, with different spells named rather than just the magic aimed at creatures. I enjoyed the action the girls get involved with, it's in keeping with where their magical and non-magical training was by season 7 (they are highly athletic) and when they have to hide their magic they come up with fun alternatives, like climbing walls and ceilings with special sucker thingies instead of just flying up and over them. 

I'm glad I read about the series before I watched it, otherwise I'd have been completely clueless about the villains in the show (a crocodile like monster and a mysterious clock). I know this plot will get unravelled, but I'm more intrigued knowing it's to do with a Peter Pan themed tale than being in ignorance. I was a bit unsure about the second talent they find, because the boy involved seems to be erring on the malicious side of his natural gift, but Tecna in particular helps lead him to the right path. 

WoW Leila/Ayesha (she is Leila in most of the French series), Stella, Musa

All in all World of Winx is a hit with me, I won't mind too much about not being able to see it for a while once my Netflix subscription expires at the start of December because I do prefer the original series. I will eventually get it if it comes out on dvd (if it does it'll be the French version, as season 7 doesn't seem to be out in English on dvd yet). I'm looking forward to seeing the French version of it too!) 

Edited after to add: Have watched the entire season, looking forward to season 2. It was clever, especially the twists at the end. Will watch again but not for a while.  

Suggested watch

Check out my review of Winx Season 6!  

Here's the Winx, plus Daphne (far right) who helps the Winx but isn't completely a member.

 

Nayu's News #228 Review update time!

I'm as excited as Fluttershy was the gala in My Little Pony possibly season 1

It's time for me to catch up with the reviews which, thanks to the wonderful Hootsuite, are going live on my Twitter and Facebook accounts without me doing a thing! It means I've been able to focus on resting, and dealing with the cold weather, not stress over letting you know that my latest post is out. I can't believe I've been doing this for a month, it's definitely a good step which I'm continuing to make. I do miss making the tweets more personal, and I will try to do so in the future, but I can't backdate those personal tweets for reviews before today. There's a lot, and I'm hurrying to finish what I need to do so tomorrow (Friday, which will be today when you read this post) I can have a full rest day as I've a lot of driving to do Saturday. Plus I'd be spamming you all with so many tweets at once, which isn't beneficial to anyone.

No idea what anime this is from so if you know please do let me know! Get enough spam that I wouldn't want to add more to your inboxes

The update is that I'm now (finally) emailing the links to the relevant publicists and putting the reviews on Goodreads. As a reminder check out this post as to why I'm no longer reviewing on Amazon UK or US. I'm sorry it's taken me this long to do this, I genuinely haven't had the energy to do it. Winter hit me harder than expected, and I'm adjusting to the lower temperatures in so far as I'm reducing must-do's on days I feel rough (which is every day now til Spring...) 

I love snow! If we ever get it again where I live. Like snow there are 2 sides of winter to me, 1 = body gets stroppier every single day, 2nd is I'm excited about the prospect of snow, even if it never happens (which it hasn't for a few years)

Anyway, I am heading off to Devon from Saturday to Tuesday, so today (Thurs) I'm pre-scheduling a few posts to keep you ticking over. There will be 2 reviews (maybe 3, as I don't think I finished one from the other day) and quite possibly an anime and/or gaming post too!) There will be more of those once I'm back, because I really am almost caught up with review reading/listening (got to love those audiobook reviews), so yay! It's nice to almost be on top of things at last. I hope you get on top of something this weekend!

Tigeropolis Competition Winner!

 Two weeks has passed since I started the competition for those of you in the UK to win a copy of the Tigeropolis books by R. D. Dikstra, which means it is time to announce the winner. The one who got a copy of this super cute series is....

Sharon W! 

Many congratulations Sharon, I've emailed you to sort out prize sending details. I don't yet know when the next competition will be up but keep checking back and see what you can win here on Nayu's Reading Corner! 

To those of you expecting to see a meme today it's going to come later in the week. 

Time for a random Aikatsu Stars pic of Lola! The game for the 3DS is out at the end of the week and I'm super excited!