Otaku Shrine is moving!

Wow, after a long hiatus, I’m so glad to see so many reviews and comments to this day. *bows* Domo arigato minna-san!

So what can I say? I’ve bee busy writing about anime in a magazine, I’ve been busy writing about games but even after all this time, anime is still my number 1 love!

 So we’re moving Otaku Shrine to http://otaku-shrine.com– and take note, since Michiko is busy with the magazine, this will be a one-man– ehem, woman show. So I do hope you guys drop by!

More anime and manga in that site!

Olivia’s A Little Pain

If I ever had to choose my favorite among the many superb and truly fascinating j-music tracks around, I’d definitely and unhesistatingly choose Olivia’s “A Little Pain” from the soundtrack of the truly wonderful anime NANA.

Adjectives cannot even sufficely describe my extreme attachment to this song– it pulled me through some harrowing moments and still gives me inspiration to this day. A friend who is not even that fond of anime music totally liked this song because not only is the melody heart-stirring, Olivia’s voice totally soars and touches the hearts of its listeners. Here’s the video *heart-heart-heart-LOVE*

For the complete English translation of ”A Little Pain” 

The Search For Sakura’s Feathers Continues

There was a time when I totally gave up on Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. While the fillers were a huge turn-off, BeeTrain’s animated rendition of TRC was a far cry from the CLAMP’s mouthwaterinly artistic manga. And I have to admit the theme song played whenever Syaoran battles someone to get Sakura’s feather gets old after a while. And the flashbacks to meeting Yuuko are not at all invigorating. So I stopped following Syaoran and Sakura’s story for months.

Two days ago, while in hot pursuit of Beck’s manga scanlations, I stumbled upon the latest chapters of TRC. I opted to read the chapter 145 which was the last update. Holy good lord my heavens! The very first page hooked me with an all out battle between Syaoran and Hikaru (Angelic Layer). Warning! Spoilers full speed ahead! Do not read if you don’t like S-P-O-I-L-E-R-S! CLAMP is a freakin’ genius for all the amazing plot twists and cliffhangers they throw at us slavering fans! This is the front cover of one of the latter chapters– good lord– two Syaorans!?! Spoilers Ahoy!!!

OneManga.com: Striking Gold

Words cannot describe the utter excitement I felt when I first stumbled on this site. I was only following a lead on Beck’s newest manga chapter when I found out that OneManga has an archive of great manga titles like Bleach, Eyeshield, D-Greyman, Naruto, Death Notes, NANA– all the great anime you can think of in one sweet website. It’s an otaku goldmine that is extremely user friendly–with all the latest manga chapters.

I don’t think i can rave enough what a great find, what a treaure this site is but I might be wasting your time here instead of directing you to it so click here to proceed and here is also the link: http://www.onemanga.com

Enjoy!!!

PICK FIC (BLEACH)

I just love Bleach, I mean, everyone does. There’s all these great fight scenes, wonderful plot and awesome characters– so what more can an otaku ask for? More romance fanservice please!

But since Kubo Tite is hell-bent on pursuing the story from a more shounen perspective, fangirls would have to make do with fanfics.

Since I haven’t posted fanfic recommendations for a long time, here’s one that had me hooked, I even had to have Author Alert installed just so I can read the latest update.

The Dating Game by twelve minutes ago:

If you weren’t there, you were square. Many captains and vice captains rounded up in Shinigami Women’s Association office, with the exception of some that didn’t really want to go, for they didn’t care about being square. Each of them had some with a large amount of money in hands, hoping to win their fill tonight.

Anime Links

This link post is long overdue mainly because I’ve gotten involved with a lot of new anime so I keep getting immersed in watching all these new shows over finding the links to the ones I already love. But thank you so much for all the comments you’ve been posting, feedback is always extremely welcome since it helps spread the anime love! So without further ado, here are some great links to some of our favorite anime!

Love and Hate - A Mikan and Natsume love website. This rather well made site has chronicled the cat/dog relationship of Alice Academy’s most popular couple and has even gone beyond the anime by delving into the manga’s “doki-doki” (heart-throbbing) moments like the kiss I also blogged about and more. Check it out if you’re a really Mikan x Nastume fan! This has huge spoilers so you have been warned! http://www.freewebs.com/lovenhate/moments.html

Crescendo - A La Corda D’Oro website although I must say, its more of a Len x Kahoko site but it also has wonderful information on this reverse harem anime series. I’ve always had a soft spot for bishounens so this is great material for me. http://www.baka-saru.net/icerydragon/corda.php

FMP Novels- Now this is where I get my FMP novel spoilers. It’s a very comprehensive translation of the novels from which most of the Full Metal Panic anime series has been based. So if you want to have an idea of what is going to be animated (anime grapevine says that TSR will soon have it’s sequel this 2007), this is where you want to go. Following The Second Raid is A Dancing Very Merry Christmas and Continuing On My Own and Burning One Man Force (which has yet to be translated). http://www.boku-tachi.net

 That’s it for me right now! More to follow! Ja matta ne!

World On Fire

I was all set to do a NANA review when a fellow Bleach addict mentioned her ongoing love affair with Shakugan No Shana. She was absolutely enthralled by it and with  my interest  piqued, I decided to check it out. By the end of episode 1, I was hooked! It has all the elements I adore in any anime, great drawing, engaging characters and a plot that has action/fantasy/romance written all over it from the get go.

Shakugan no Shana (Shana of the Blazing Eyes) is a series of Japanese light novels and related media works written by Yashichiro Takahashi and illustrated by Noizi Ito. Since its release, other related media was made– from prose to manga to anime adaptations, and movie and videogames. The anime was aired between October 5, 2005- March 22, 2006 by JC Staff and an OVA and movie was spawned thereafter.

“Infinite time stops its heartbeat, and people are soundlessly consumed by fire.” – Alastor, the Lord of Crimson Realm where Shana came from.

The story revolves around Yuji Sakai, an ordinary Japanese high school boy who inadvertently becomes involved in a perpetual war between forces of balance and imbalance in existence. In the process, he befriends the title character: a female fighter for the balancing force (Flame Haze), whom he takes to calling “Shana”.