Chatterbox || Various Interests

Hello, lovely people! Guess what, guess what — it’s my birthday today! Just for the fun of it, I decided to list some of the topics that I’m interested in so that you may know a bit more about me.

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ONE | Anime

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

Of course, you already know this. Though my first few posts are live action adaptations, most of the contents of my blog are about anime series. I started watching anime series when I was young, like four or five? I still vividly remember an instance when I was tugging at my father’s shirt, begging him to turn on the TV because Sailor Moon will be on air soon. (I was always asking my father what time is it to check.) I had fun watching Dragon Ball, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Shaman King because my father used to watch them with me.

Funny how after n years, my father’s always stressed out that I almost always watch anime series because it’s really him who introduced it to me, though I’m the one who sought for other series to watch later on.

Anyway, I mostly watch series with romance, comedy, adventure, sports, slice of life, and drama. I enjoy some with fantasy and music in them, too. I was never really that fond of harem shows, though I do enjoy select reverse harem ones. (Because the boyfriends are there.)

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TWO | Manga

I’ve also got some posts about some of the manga series that I’m reading here. I really want those posts to be regular, especially those shounen manga series that update weekly, but I guess it’s a bit difficult for me. Anyhow, I’ll try to post as much as I can, though I think most of you are anime watchers only. I at least want to record some of my feels in my blog.

Anyway, the first manga that I got to read is Gakuen Alice. In 6th grade, I was able to watch the anime series. I thought I wanted to see more of the characters, so I decided to try reading the manga. I remember struggling at first because it didn’t make sense, but I figured out that I was reading it in a wrong way.

The first volume I got a physical copy of is Kamichama Karin‘s vol. 3. I got it from a secondhand bookstore. I only bought it because I thought the girl on the cover looks cute though I’m not that fond of its art anymore.

Before, I mostly read shoujo manga series, but I grew to love shounen series, too, especially because of the sports anime series I watched. There are also some josei and seinen manga titles on my list, but I want to read more of them.

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THREE | Asian Dramas

See, my first post is about an Asian drama. I think I originally wanted to post about the drama series I watched, but my ended up being… like this. Anyway, some years after being introduced to anime, I got to watch some Asian dramas aired on some local channels.

These are the first drama series I watched from the five countries.

JP: Gokusen

KR: Autumn in My Heart

TW: Lavender

TH: Full House

CN: Shan Shan Comes To Eat

Most of the series I watch are from Japan because I like the variety they offer. I think I can write a whole new post about it (though I got to talk about some of it on one of my previous posts). I think it’s also nice that I can bear to watch the episodes raw (since not many get to be subbed) because I can pick up words or phrases or sentences which I understand due to the many years I spent watching anime.

I usually watch shows with romance, comedy, slice of life, drama, and mystery.

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FOUR | Western Series

I actually got to watching some a few years ago, so there’s still a lot I want to check out. The first that I got to watch is The Big Bang Theory (I ABSOLUTELY ADORE SHELDON OMG), but I unfortunately haven’t gotten past season 5. I’m still planning to continue it, though. I just want to be in the mood. Another one I’m still planning to watch yet not in the mood to do so is Once Upon A Time. I finished its first season and got to watch a few episodes of the second and I’m still curious on how the Disney characters will play roles on this. Still only halfway through the first season of The Game of Thrones, but I know a lot about some happenings even in the later seasons because my younger brother spoils them for me.

The second which is my current favorite one now is Friends! I really love the six so much! (Chandler’s my fave!) I still haven’t watched the finale because I’m still not ready to say goodbye to them, so I’m re-watching the earlier whenever I have the opportunity.

The recent one I watched is The Good Doctor and I’m loving it so much! It’s actually based on the Korean drama of the same title (it has Joo Won and Moon Chae Won so I planned to watch it) but I still haven’t gotten the chance to watch it.

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FIVE | Theatre

(c) Broadway World

As I said in my post here about Kaleido Star, I’m fond of theatre. The first theatre play I watched was some kind of re-telling of some stories about the childhood of my country’s national hero. It was by a local theatre company. The second is a musical adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who. When I got into the uni, some organizations and theatre classes produce plays, so I got to watch more. I even got involved in some backstage works. It made me have so much respect for theatre actors. It made me adore every show because there’s not one identical show, even if it’s just one production.

This also leads me to the interest of what the next point.

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SIX | Butai plays

War council scenes are the best!

Butai is basically theatre or stage in Japanese, but I want to make this another point because I’m referring to the butai plays of series. There are certain anime/manga/light novel series which get their own stage play adaptations, you know! They are called 2.5D stage and musical plays.

The first one I watched was a Tenimyu (The Prince of Tennis musical) production, but what got me to watching more of them is Hyper Projection Engeki Haikyuu!! so that has a special place in my heart.

Another one I adore is the Touken Ranbu stage plays (a.k.a Tousute, where the war council scenes are the best!), but there’s also the musical (Toumyu). They have different sets of actors and staffs involved in them, but both are enjoyable in their own ways.

What I love the most about these are the backstage footages they release along the DVDs. Though the actual shows are lovely, it’s fun to see the actors goofing around and all, too.

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SEVEN | Japanese and Korean music

This one I developed an interest in because of the shows I watch. One way or another, I also got to know some artists even if they don’t really sing any song for any anime or drama series I watched. I love and frequently listen to YUI, SCANDAL, Perfume, miwa, Leo Ieiri, Ikimonogakari, Sonoko Inoue, Aimer, SHISHAMO, Little Glee Monster, Nishino Kana, One OK Rock, flumpool, SPYAIR, back number, RADWIMPS, Goose house, and AAA.

When it comes to Korean music, I’m more of a fan of idol groups. The first group I loved is Super Junior (first bias is Yesung, then Siwon, Donghae, and now Kyuhyun). Then, my first friend in uni introduced SHINee to me. (Taemin is my bias.) Hello, the MV up there, is even the first Korean song I learned. I tried to dance to their steps, too, but I’m not really gifted with graceful and coordinated body, so I gave up. Haha! Then, followed EXO, eventually. (Chanyeol! But I also love D.O, Xiumin, and Baekhyun are bias-wreckers!) I also like B1A4 and BTS, though I just started listening to BTS’ songs recently. (I love Fire!) I like CNBlue and FTIsland, too! Oh, and I love Akdong Musician, K.will, Eric Nam, John Park, Eddy Kim, Ailee, Gummy, LYn, and IU, too!

And I’m just going to drop this because since it’s about music — I play the guitar, but I’m still not good. I just recently got back to practice playing again. My friend just taught me how to play the family of E chords some days ago!

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EIGHT | Some More Art

If you’ve seen some of my fan arts, you’ll know I draw various characters. I usually like drawing the ones from the series I’m watching. I’ve loved drawing ever since I was young. I remember that we had a blackboard before and my father used to draw some anime characters there before leaving for work. I used to copy those. The first shoujo character I frequently drew when I was in kindergarten was Sailor Moon while the first shounen character was Goku.

I’ve always wanted to be able to draw well using pencils, but I just can’t improve because I keep going back and forth to it from different mediums like watercolors and colored pencils.

I used to do some digital art, too, but SAI and Photoshop was left on my previous laptop and I’m currently using Mac. Can’t afford to spend money on those at the moment. I’d also want to have a graphic tablet someday so I can draw with ease because mouse is just too difficult to control for me.

Just last year, I got interested in calligraphy, too, so I went to buy some brush pens and have been doing some freestyle ones for personal use. I’d love to practice to be able to do the more casual and formal styles, too, though.

I’d love to be able to do animation, too. We did some flash animations in high school, and I know that it’s nowhere near the professional ones, but I really enjoyed doing them even if they’re somehow tedious to do for me at that age.

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NINE | Photography

Ever since I took an introduction to film-making, I got interested in photography. I loved looking at beautiful cinematographies of various films I watch. I just don’t have the courage to post some shots I take because they’re not really well-taken.

I want to travel to a lot of places someday and I hope that by then, I already know how to take beautiful pictures!

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TEN | Books

And by books, I mean novels. I do love reading through encyclopedias, though, because of the various knowledge I pick up from them. Anyway, I remember going through the different volumes of the encyclopedia set my grandparents have because it has Alice Through the Looking Glass story parts separated on each of them. The first book I borrowed during 3rd grade was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and because of it, I own a lot of Roald Dahl books. I also read various romance novels by Sarah Dessen, Nicholas Sparks, and Sophie Kinsella in high school. It was also then when I collected my Harry Potter books.

I only buy paperback copies, though, because I always feel bad for the extra money I could spend on other things. So, I only have two hardbound books — Sherlock Holmes and The Fault in Our Stars. I regret buying the latter one because while I did like how John Green writes, the story disappointed me.

Oh, I also got into the dystopian genre — The Hunger Games, Divergent, Matched (but I still haven’t finished reading the 2 other books), and Delirium. The very recent ones I’m reading are more into high fantasy genre — Warbreaker and Darker Shades of Magic (this one I should finish soon!).

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Obviously, I’m the indoors type of person. If you’ll ask me what sports I play, badminton is the closest one I can answer. But I enjoy running as an exercise, too. I like playing around with basketball. (I can’t shoot with proper form.) My friends say that I’m quite a fast learner since I got to know how to play table tennis and to serve in volleyball easily. But I still prefer being indoors reading or watching or drawing.

Anyway, is any of these to your interest, too? I hope we’ll get along more this year!

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