Monday, January 31, 2011

The Indian Matrix

I just noticed I made a big boo boo on the last post. I've fixed it. Y'all can let me know If I spell incorrectly. Gosh, I feel stupid. I also noticed I have lame ass titles for my post but I am a newbie blogger, I am still learning. I also read We were there vol. 11. I know its kinda late but I can only read em when I have time. This volume is sooooo sad. Yano's such a tragic character. I hope this manga doesn't end at a sad note. I really do like Nanami as a character and hate that Yuri Yamamoto. Gosh, it's wrong to feel so much dislike for a character. Anywho, on a more happier note, check this out.
It never fails to make me laugh. Yeah, I am lame like that. I'll shut up now.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

KAT-TUN, Egypt and Skip Beat (weird combo, I know).

First of all, I've deleted my last post on immigration in Canada because I want to do a proper review and response to the TVO series. The new post hopefully should be on my next Sunday.

I know I said this blog will mix asian pop culture and politics but I haven't really posted much. What's going on in Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia is relevent to everyone in the world. I think the "revolution" is too fresh and I am still waiting more information before I do a post on it.

New volume of Skip beat is here. You can read a review here. Um, I am guilty of reading the scan of this before it got published. But if you want to do it proper, go read A feminist Otaku's review. I will be getting the copy of the manga when I get time, ok?

Now to more fun topic, not that Skip beat ain't fun, I am introducing one of the best Japanese boy bands, KAT-TUN. Many of you may know Jin Akanishi has left the band. Yes, it made me sad because I think he and Kamenashi make a good couple team.

Okay, I want Jin to comeback because I miss them together. I know there are rumors that they are not on good terms. Atleast that's what i've gleaned from youtube comments on their videos. I know not a reliable source but I heart these guys. Seriously, look at them. They are so hot;D

The image is from djmusiq.com.
For those new to the group, Kamenashi Kazuya is on the left and Jin Akanishi is on the right.

Here's one of my fav KAT-Tun song:
Precious one.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Japanese Fashion and Kawaii obsession

Hey sorry for the sluggish rate of posts. Busy with student life. So, I am gonna be a lazy ass and give you link to these fun sites you can waste spend your time on.

I've always been intrigued by Japanese fashion, it's so different and fun. I love the various Japanese sub cultures like Lolita, Kogal etc. For those of you who may not know what I am talking about, Wiki does do an awesome job by making the terminology accessible to people who know nothing about Japan..

 If you Google Japanese street fashion, you'll get a lot of hits.
Here are some fun ones.

Fashion Japan: In English, loads of fun. Can spend day looking through all the "models."

Style Arena: It is in Japanese but you can get it translated in English. Anyway, it's fine since you are looking at pictures. Another great site, love how they highlight these cool shops. I seriously copy the shop names and put them in my folder called things to do in Japan list. Sadly my dream to go to Japan is still far far away.

Harajukustyle: Oh, if you are into visual Kei or just want to try out any of the Japanese fashion trends, check them out. They've got links to cool online shops.
Since, I love Kawaii (cute) accessories and stationery, I especially recommend Chicki. I want the Gloomy Bear file. Well, someone's birthday is next month, I hope my benefactors cough parents cough are listening.

Here's some of the items I lust from Chicki.
The Mario Plush bag. There was a guy in my class last year who had a Ninja turtle bag and ever since that day, I've had major bag envy. This bag would rectify it.


This cute pocket mirror. The tags got a Panda on it. Awww.  It is god's way of telling me that I have a right to purchase this.


Totoro Wallet

I confess, if I was loaded I'd buy everything from this site. They do ship to Canada. Yay.

All the images are of course from Chicki.co.uk.

BTW, I tried to scan some of the images from Kimi ni todoke vol.6 for this blog but it didn't work out. My printer is possessed and I need to exorcise it by taking it to the tech geeks at Best Buy. If it gets fixed, I'll post more manga updates and reviews. I promise.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Where have sane people gone?

Today, I was walking past my university and saw a guy holding a sign that stated my university in Toronto had become a hot bed for Jihad. Now, we do see various protests occuring in and around university but this just took the cake. I mean, seriously it is a liberal university and I suspect most students are on the left spectrum of political ideology. When did left wing ideology had anything common with extremist right wing Islamic ideology? Most students who are not left wing are right of centre.
Read the comments in this article by politico and you will be forgiven if you think most of the commentators are uneducated.
Gosh, people understand you isms. You know like the actual meaning of liberalism, conservatism , Marxism etc. Go read the actual works of Weber, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Nietzsche. Maybe take political theory at local college.
So far, all I've seen on the most comment sections of major Canadian, American, Indian, Israeli newspapers is just vitriol. Most of the time there are no rational facts behind the statements. Is it too much to ask for fact based opinions people?

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Encounters of a creepy kind

Once upon a time, an awesome person known as Nerdy panda decided to go to University in Toronto. Her mode of transporation was the subway. Alas, Nerdy panda encountered foes aka the creepy dudes. She learned how to handle them and now teaches other awesome people to identify these creepy crawlies.

So, here's Nerdy panda's guide to identify and battle these vermins:

First up is the pathetic middle aged dude.
This dude is just pathetic. He's middle age, losing hair and hates his job. He likes to butt in the conversation of young college girls and likes to give them unsolicitated advice. He starts out by saying how he'll love to help you with your essay (which is creepy) and then goes in a full blown rant about his job. You can see how he hates his job and might even feel sorry for him. Except, this dude does not know when to shut up.

Best way to handle him: Turn on your ipod, if this doesn't give him a clue, change seats.


Second is the Old creepy bussissness dude.
He's old and creepy and wants to know all about your culture. I mean, seriously dude you wanna know all about Indian people, go read a book. He starts out polite but suddenly starts asking personal questions and starts making you very uncomfortable.

Best way to handle him: Politely tell him to shut up. Er, I mean that your private life does not concern him. Shut him down girlfriends! If you wanna be evil like moi, you give him fabricated personal information that will start making him very unconfortable.

Now we are going from annoying but harmless dudes to icky creepy dangerous territory.
Third is the creepy young dude.

On surface he looks like an average young dude and suddenly he says something that makes you look up from your readings. You stare at him and realize that he's smiling/staring at you in a very icky way. Your blood turns cold at his stare and you look around at other passengers.

How to handle him: Obey your sixth sense. I would exit at the next stop even if its not my stop.

This one's just sad. Its the crazy homeless dude.
I'd like to say that I have seen homeless people on the subway and they usually are not troublesome. The homeless guy I am talking about clearly suffered from some form of mental illness but did not get the help he needed. He was swearing heavily and wanted to get in a scuffle with the passengers. He's siiting right across you and some stupid passenger keeps swearing back at him. The environment in the subway is getting more  and more hostile. Luckily, the guy leaves and the rest of the passengers ignore the foulmouth homeless guy.
 Best way to handle this situation is sadly to ignore the guy, get off next stop or change the car.


The Art work is by my younger sister. I can't even draw good stick figures. Pathetic, that's me.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Fables by Bill Willingham.

I thought, I'd share this awesome comic book with y'all. Although, I  am a big fan of mangas, they are not the only comics I read. I grew up on Spiderman cartoon series and read the awesome Indian comics Amar Chitra Katha. I read Fables during my freshman year at university and fell in love with it. Due to school and work commitment, I've only read up to Arabian Nights (and days).

Fables is a creative retelling of modern fairytales. I love how some of the beloved sweet fairytales characters are dark and twisted. If you dislike the Disney version of fairy tales, you'll love this. The art work is beautiful with guest artists contributing also. For example, 1001 Nights of Snowfall has guest artists doing the art work. The series does deal with mature themes so I would not recommend it for kids. It's definitely an adult take on fairy tales and folklore.

Image is from dccomics.com


P.S: I am sorry, I keep changing the blog template but the blog's still kinda new so I am experimenting. I am realy happy with this new template. Its simple and has colour scheme I am partial to.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Asian Drama News, IIFA and more

I bring you exciting drama news for 2011. Hayate the Combat Butler is being adapted into a taiwanese drama Xuan Feng Guan Jia. George Hu and Korean actress Park Shin Hye play lead characters. (Source: Dramawiki). Hmm, Let's see how they do justice to the manga.

I already told you about Absolute Boyfriend being adapted in a Taiwanese drama with Wu Chun and Goo Hye Sun as the lead.

Another manga being adapted into live action is series Deka Wanko. This seems really fun. (Source: Drama Wiki).

All in all 2011 looks promising in terms of Asian Drama. Now, I just hope they adapt Skip Beat and We Were There into live action.

Also, IIFA (International Indian Film Academy) awards are being hosted in Toronto in spring. Dad is so excited. One of his co-workers actually played hookie and got a pic taken with Anil Kapoor. Those of you who may not know his name, he played the sleazy game show host in Slumdog Millionaire. Read more about it here.

Also, people who might be interested in Bollywood, watch No one killed Jessica. It's based on the real murder of Jessica Lall, a delhi-based model who was shot by a politician's son because she refused to serve him drinks. It's got 2 great actresses Vidya and Rani.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Golden Globes, K-pop and more!

First of all, saw Golden Globes yesterday. How awesome was Paul Giamatti's shot out to Canada. Loved it! Also, finally read Kimi ni todoke vol. 6. It was so good, this series been getting better and better. Oh, can't wait to read next volume. I'll do a more detailed post on the manga later.

Oh, check out this 2ne1 song. Its called Don't stop the music. It's for a commercial, how cool is that? I wish we had commercials like that in Canada.




That's all you get from me today. Now, I must go and do my readings on Canadian Foreign policy.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Hana Yori Dango: The Indian version?

First of all, I'd like to say this week's been brutal but I am doing fine. I went back to University and let me just tell you it’s freezing over here. It’s like -13 which I know isn't as bad as say Nunavut but still, I hate the cold.

Anyhow about the topic, I was trying to be more positive and thinking about happy things. In a random conversation with my sister, we started talking about what manga would be best adapted by the Indian cinema. I mean, if they adapt one of the mangas in India, my parents might finally watch it. Seriously, they think I am a weirdo for liking all this stuff.  To tell you the truth, the idea of Bollywood butchering some of my favourite mangas is reprehensible. Nevertheless, we both thought Hana Yori Dango (Boys before flowers) would be the best adaptation. It is a melodrama and a love story, two things Indians can do well. On top of that with the Indian economic growth, I can totally believe this story being set up there. I mean, ask your selves how many Indian movies have the rich guy, poor girl scenario and parents coming between their love. This drama will be different because the protagonists are so young. However, our fear is that the most directors in Indian cinema will wreck it.

Who should make the drama: Um, this was hard. I like the work of Dibakar Bannerjee so far but he deals with dark themes. Maybe he needs to make a fun drama with no song and dance. Someone, quick give me his number? I'll go out on a limb and say  that Kiran Rao  might make me proud since her hubby Aamir can bankroll the project. Oh, imagine the buzz it will create. Oh, I also heard awesome reviews for her debut movie Dhobi Ghat. My only fear is that Aamir might wanna play Domyouji. Blech!

Cast: The F4, Tsukushi, all the young characters should be newcomers. I mean, seriously Indian cinema needs to stop nepotism and unearth young talent across the country. T hey’ve got over a billion people, I am sure they can find hot, talented actors for the role. Indian cinema is full of old dudes playing 20 something, and it’s got to stop. Another fear of mine is that the adaptation might be a vehicle to launch an actor/politician's off springs acting career. UGH! So, yeah newcomers will be awesome.

Supporting cast: Oh, now I have few famous actors who might kick ass in their roles. this is probably never goona happen but here I go:
Kaede Domoyouji aka Evil Mom
Oh, Lillete Dubey, you can do this role justice.



Lillete Dubey

Tsubaki Domoyouji aka the awesome sister of Domoyouji
I had trouble with this one, she's beautiful but compaasionate and understands what Domoyouji is going through. My sister picked Aishwarya Rai but I picked Preity Zinta. She's not in any movies so she might do television. Okay, its not likely but I can hope can't I? I, also think she sorta has resemblence to Lillete.


Now for Shizuka Todou: This was the easiest pick. Shizuka had a modeling carrer so I am picking model turned actor Deepika Padukone.



That's all I've got. Do you think India's ready for its own version of Hana Yori Dango?

All images are from Google Images.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Japan: Expectation vs. Reality

Of all the countries in the world I'd like to visit, Japan tops my list. I'd especially like to visit Tokyo. Althought, I still have not been able to fulfill my dream (Tokyo's expensive), reading about Japan has tempered my expectations.

 Not the best place for Vegetarians or Vegans. See this video:



 People can be unfriendly to Foreigners or Gaijin as the Japanese like to call us (not visiting tourists but people who actually want to live and work there).

Complex culture: although, all cultures are complex to some degree, it seems like Japanese culture is so intricate that is hard to take it all in during one trip.

Despite all this, I still think the land of mangas is still pretty awesome.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Politics is dirty and you should be interested in it!

Let me tell you something about myself. I am not only a super nerd interested in Asian pop culture and old school Bollywood music but I am also a political science undergrad. There, I said it; I have no chances of getting a money-making job ever eh? I hear so many times that people find politics dirty and depressing. They'd rather fill their heads with stories of Lindsey Lohan's DUI's. If there is anything I feel more strongly about, it is that people should be interested in the political process of their nation state and about what's going in the rest of the world. Believe it or not, it does affect you in your everyday life and we are lucky we live in a western liberal democracy. Since, I live in Canada; here are some of my resources to make "complicated" politics uncomplicated.

For Canadians (or those who are interested in us) and most importantly Ontarians:

 TVO's got a great tool for people to understand how Provincial Government actually works. It's called Civics 101. For Canadians, who might only care about Federal politics, it's the provinces that control the Education, Health, Welfare etc. In other words, they control many things that affect you in your day to day life.

For people interested in local politics especially Vancouverites (again, they matter and control your property taxes) check out CityCaucus.com
For Torontonians, Torontoist is good.

For federal politics, check out Rabble.ca.

 Interested in International Affairs and Foreign Policy: Well, check out Foreign policy.com
Care about the war in Afghanistan and how India and Pakistan affect the region; check out the Af-Pak part of FP.
Read Pak Tea House.net to understand about Pakistan (is a liberal blog).
The Acorn is good for understanding India's national interest.

Most importantly, read news, lots of it. Here are some of my news sources:
Globe and Mail
Toronto Star
 The New York Times
The Guardian
Haaretz (for Israeli news)
Johnson's Russia List (for news about Russia)
The Huffington post
Politico.com (USA)

Well, now you have no excuses, next time there's an election (might be soon for us Canadians), I want you to make a well-informed decision and vote. Yeah, vote because every little vote counts and you can't really rant about the government if you didn't vote.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

My favourite Shojo Manga

Hi, I'm sorry, I didn't post anything but life's been hectic and with the way things are going, I might have to quit the new job. Aww man, I really don't want to do that but University comes first. I also dropped a course midway and believe me it hurts. I was pretty proud that I stuck through my courses and passed all of em. But this course, I didn't need it and I was kinda finding it boring. FYI, the course I dropped is called History of Espionage. Sounds interesting and is boring! I also have a pretty big  fine on my library card. 2011 isn't going that well for me eh?
Anyway, I've decided to do a post on my  favourite shojo mangas. They are in following order from the absolutely obsessed to slightly less obsessed but still loved mangas.

1. Skip Beat
2. Kimi ni Todoke
3. We Were There
4. Sand Chronicles
5. High School Debut
6. Lovely Complex
7. Crimson Hero
8. Absolute Boyfriend
10. Otomen

Does anyone know what genre Yotsuba and I is? Because it is one of my absolutely favourite manga but I don't think it is Shojo. You might notice my manga choice leads toward Romantic Comedy with Comedy taking the lead in many of the mangas.

 Mangas that didn't make it to top 10 but I still like are Wallflower, Vampire Knight, Monkey High, Imadoki, Baby and me, Hana Yori Dango, Absolute Boyfriend, Aishiteruze Baby. You might have also noticed I didn't put the very popular Fruits Basket on the list. That's because I still haven't read it. Is it any good? Hana Kimi, Ouran High School Host club, Nana I've seen only as anime and they are so good.

P.S: I just found out that they are making the Taiwanese version of Absolute Boyfriend with Goo Hye Sun (the lead in Korean Boys before Flowers) and Wu Chun. Source: Wikipedia, Wiki.d-addicts.com
Since, Wu Chun is one of my favourite Taiwanese idols, I am so excited for this show.  I just hope that Hye-Sun acts better in this show. There's also a good Japanese live action of this manga called Zettai Kareshi. Sorry for the long post.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Kimi ni Todoke: The Movie

Okay, the movie was released last year but I am ashamed to say I still haven't seen it.The DVD still hasn't been released. I also gotta admit I have only read the manga up to vol.5
Does anyone know if the movie is good?
It stars Haruma Miura as Kazehaya, one of my favourite Japanese idol. He was so good in Koizora.

Ah, I swoon. The trailer's on youtube. It looks so good. I think they got a great cast.

Another live action I still haven't seen is Otomen. Now, I just hope they do a live action on Skip Beat.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Years :D

So, its New Years, eh? Time to wipe out all the sucky things that happened to you last year and making new resolutions you know you can't stick to. Also, the time to reflect on last year's accomplishments. Here's some of mine:
1. Got high on sugar (Yes, that is an accomplishment).
2. Managed to read mangas over my course readings and didn't fail University.
3. Took a summer course and worked but managed to watch  Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge. Kame is so cute.
4. Got a new part-time job while starting a blog.
5. Read blogs instead of going on facebook but still retained friends (they are incredibly patient and nice).

All in all, my accomplishments are sorta um bland except getting high on sugar, my new drug. Okay, its the only other drug except caffeine. My New Years resolution is to graduate, get a job, make bazillions of $ so I can pay the student loans, read even more mangas and keep blogging. :)