Megumi Noda, or "Nodame" is a piano student at Momogaoka College of Music. An extremely talented pianist who wants to be a preschool teacher, she prefers playing by ear rather than reading the music score. She is messy and disorganized, takes baths several days apart and loves to eat, sometimes stealing her friend's lunchbox when it is filled with delicacies.
Shinichi Chiaki is Momogaoka's top student. Born into a musical family, he is talented in piano and violin and has secret ambitions to become a conductor. An arrogant multi-lingual perfectionist who once lived abroad in the music capitals of the world as a young boy (namely Prague), he is trapped in Japan because of his childhood phobia of airplanes and the ocean.
They meet by accident. Nodame quickly falls in love, but it takes much longer for Chiaki to even begin to appreciate Nodame's unusual qualities. Their relationship causes them both to develop and grow. Along the way, they meet some crazy people (like Masumi, Mine, and Stresemann) and make lasting friendships. Because of Nodame, Chiaki gets the opportunity to lead a student orchestra and begins to have a broader appreciation of people's musical abilities. Because of Chiaki, Nodame faces her fears and enters a piano competition. Opportunities open up as both begin taking risks, stretching themselves far more than they ever thought possible.
After graduation, Nodame succeeds in curing Chiaki from his phobia and they both move to Paris where Nodame continues her piano studies at the Conservatoire de Paris while Chiaki starts a professional career as a conductor. In Europe, they encounter new friends and rivals, as well as keep in touch with their friends from Japan.

I’m only reviewing the live-action drama series that aired in 2007-2008. The anime didn’t appear until after the drama series. I don’t care too much for the manga or the anime. J-dramas are really inspiring because Japanese try their best at acting like anime characters (and quite possibly their American counterparts).

I have so much love for this series. It’s right up there with NANA. Not only does it fill my needs and wants of being a hopeless romantic, it’s also fulfilling for my love of classical music. In each episode they show a piece of music written by a legendary composer and the origins of the piece.
This live action was a really great piece of art. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it can be enjoyed with that special someone who also has similar interests in the musical arts.

Alien women.....Boobs......Panty Shots......Nosebleed and blushing moments.....uncomfortable antisocial hero.....and we can't forget the MELON BREAD!  I give to you....dearS.

dearS is the story of Takeya Ikuhara, a 17 year old student who works at a video store and lives alone. He has a bit of an immature antisocial outlook on life, and is the unlikely hero of this story. He comes across a a naked Homeless alien (Ren) in the bushes on the way home from school one day. Ren turns out to be a dearS, a type of alien that Takeya finds repulsive, but he takes her in anyways. He becomes the object of her affection much to his dismay, but finds himself attached to her. She begins school with him, proudly proclaiming him as her master, while he's embarrassed by the situation. However, Ren begins to get him  out of his shell making him a better person.  Eventually the head of dearS learn of Ren, and begin to bring her back in as they see her as Defective. Takeya finds himself falling for Ren and protecting her as he believes everyone has a right to live as they choose.


This series is only 13 episodes and is available anywhere you buy or rent anime. You can also catch any of the 8 volumes of Manga at your local Bookstore. 

I have to say, this one is great to watch on a cold day when you have nothing better to do. I wouldn't go out and buy the box set or the manga, but if you can find it streaming or know anyone who bought it, I say grab it.

Its cute and Zany and has a lot of funny moments. It has alot of CHIBI moments, awkward pauses, and characters that just make you SMILE when you think about them. not to mention Takeya has a female teacher who brings a whole new meaning to the word pervert.   The love isn't too melodramatic or OUT there.  It's very much a guy who doesn't wanna be a master to the slave but ends up doing it and falling in love anyways.

so if you got time to kill, like to laugh and smile, check out dearS.


**to our readers, my appologies for the length of this post. I am horribly sick at the moment. I also am not a HUGE love anime fan. so bear with me.  this is more Bhan's area of expertise.**

TRIGUN is the story of Vash the Stampede. A seemingly goofy clumsy amnesiac of a man who is wanted by bounty hunters for the destruction of the city of July. He's constanly on the run from bounty hunters leaving destroyed cities in his wake. (all caused by the bounty hunters, but he gets blamed for it.) But he's not the idiot he appears to be, he's a superb gunman with a pacisfist streak who hides behind his idiot persona to keep people from looking too deep.

He's being tracked by two Bernardelli Insurance agents named Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson who are trying to prevent him from causing anymore damage that their company has to pay out for. They follow him through everything and eventually figure out that it's not Vash causing the damage but the people chasing him. Their company ends up classifying him as the world's only Human Natural Disaster to prevent from having to pay out more money. Needless to say they end up quitting their jobs.

Vash also meets a man named Nicholas D. Wolfwood. He's a gunman and a Priest who travels the desert with a HUGE Cross strapped to his back. The relationship Vash has with this man is complicated. Even though Wolfwood is a Priest he has no qualms about killing. He believes that sometimes men have to become the devil themselves to save others, while Vash believes killing is wrong no matter what. Wolfwood's redemption plays a HUGE roll in the end of this series and comes at a very steep price.

At some point in this anime it takes on a dark tone as he begins to look for his brother, Knives who is sending his henchmen (The Gung-ho Guns) to torment him and cause as much death and choas as possible. The series ends with Vash and Knives facing off.....(i am not going to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it.)

The original Manga was done by the wonderful Yasuhiro Nightow. The manga was serialized in Tokuma Shoten's Shōnen Captain from the series debut in 1995 until the magazine's demise in 1997. The series continued in Shōnen Gahosha's Young King Ours magazine, under the title Trigun Maximum where it remained until finishing in 2007.

I have nothing bad to say about this series. I love everything about it. Post-Appocalyptic Westerns are always fun. It was one of the first series that I sat through that I enjoyed every episode. There is something to be said about a series of anything that makes you smile just thinking about it.

It's most definitely in my top 10 favorite. A series that any person who claims to love or hate anime needs to watch and if you haven't then SHAME ON YOU.