Greetings and Salutations!
Welcome to Manga Mangoes. This is an anime, manga, movies, music, novels, and other blog created by Maggie in the June of 2005. This site was created by the fact that I want to log what I'm currently doing and inform the web community of things people might be missing out. If you want to find a way to contribute, please contact me.
Warning: Don't be insulted by some of the entries, particularly the sarcastic/rant ones. These are just the opinion of Maggie and shouldn't initiate a string of hatemail. Death to hatemail.
Entries
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Discworld Novels Wmrecorder 9.14 patch |
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Okay, I've been in love with all things Discworld from the first book I read in it's series ( "The Truth"). It's hell to summarize, I'll tell 'ya that, but it's fantastic on soooo many levels. For the most part, the endings have an element of suprise to them, and even if they don't, they're a good read anyhow. Oddly enough, the series of books has got probably 200 characters in, oh, say, 30 books. And the 200 characters are just the main ones. Probably a little less than that get killed off or somethin'  , lasting only one book. On the whole, though, they usually come back to be in at least 2 or 3 other books. The plots are varied but are held together by the fact that they all take place in the city of Ankh-Morpork at roughly the same area of time. It's the eccentric, awesome type of humor you'd find in "Blackadder" or something. They're Sci-Fi books, with a touch of Science and a ton of odd fiction ( for example: the world's flat and is being held up by four gigantic elephants supported by an even more gigantic turtle) . In my opinion, the best books include thr City Watch as the main characters. The police have got trolls, dwarfs, a werewolf, a zombie and a man who is constantly being mistook for some sort of feral animal in it's employ, and is held up by Commander Sam Vimes, again, a character reminding me of "Blackadder". Not really a summary, but, as I said, it's too hard to summarize because nothing really ever makes a lot of sense, and when it does, you have to be sort of odd and a fantasy nut to get the humour. But, hey, you have to be that kind of person to be reading a book review by a nerd named "Lady Shadow" on a site called "Manga Mangoes", now wouldn't you? So read it!  |
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Opening Day Wmrecorder 9.14 patch |
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Feeling:  Written on the KTD Forumsarena 8.0 bittorrent Last night, I went to the opening of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". I know most people were over at the Barnes and Noble waiting for their Harry Potter books, but I chose to go to one of my favorite Dahl stories, one of my favorite directors (Tim Burton), and favorite composers' (Danny Elfman) movie. The show was at 8:30pm and the line was so freakin' long. It was like the Star Wars movie premiere day (we went to also, only it was the 11pm show). Only, instead of people wearing costumes, I found a humongous group of doppleganger, teenybopper, shrieky voice girls and boys. I saw several kids from my junior high school. It's weird how over the summer you can't wait to see them, but once you see them from afar at the theatre, you remember why you abhored them (one boy looked like he turned drug addict). Here I was, in a sweatshirt, a t-shirt, and shorts staring at girls with tight-tight-tight shirts with jean mini skirts, freaky pink flipflops with fat bulging out. Not something I want to see and it is kind of ironic with a movie involving chocolate. But anyways, once we got inside, we (my dad, my brother, and I) found fantastic seats by the aisle. It was interesting to look around and see groups of families or teenybopper kids that I still want to stick a knife through them. My brother and I were discussing about Danny Elfman (since we're big fans of Oingo Boingo, I am currently listening to his song "Nasty Habits" XD). My brother thought it was strange how he was nominated for "Big Fish" for original score, when you could barely hear the music. I assured Nick that, from what I've heard, it's a mix of his old Oingo Boingo days. And then the movie started. And damn was I right. The opening song sounded very much like an Oingo Boingo song. I even brought my hands up in a rock sign for that. Thank you, Elfman! >D Anyways, I have been a big fan of the book since I read it when I was 7 or 8 years of age. I loved Roald Dahl's cruel sense of humor and the wonderment and everything. I just adored his writing (and I read all of his other books). When I was 8 or so, I saw "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." I was especially furious that they made it a musical and they changed a lot of things in the book. I wanted the original story that I adored. Sure, I still liked the movie, but I don't watch it constantly and worship it. However, when the movie started, everything was so true to me from the book. Charlie Bucket was exactly as I imagined him - a boy that could easily be blown over any second by the winter wind. A screwy house and the cabbage soup with hilarious grandparents - Joe, Josephine, George, and Georgina - stuck in this lopsided bed. Even if I needed to go to the bathroom badly, I didn't want to leave my seat. I loved this tale and I loved the visuals. I loved it's cruel sense of humor and I loved the music of Oingo Boingo essence. I especially loved the Oompa Loompa performances (I found out later that all the singing was by Danny Elfman in the credits - HELL YEAH >D) And I am so glad they didn't use CGI for the squirrels. Yesh, they were all trained to crack open walnuts as I read in the SCI-FI magazine. Go and see this movie - even if the long line scares you! >D |
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Shoujo Beat Wmrecorder 9.14 patch |
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Holy cow...who'da thought us girls had such violent and suggestive (well, I guess I could've seen that coming...) preferences? After reading "Godchild", "Nana" and "Absolute Boyfriend" from Viz's "Shoujo Beat" magazine, well...I wanted more. I'd been waiting a long time to read "Nana" and "Godchild", and neither were what I expected them to be. While "Absolute Boyfriend" lives up to my expectations of it being "Chobits" for girls (not a bad thing, mind you), "Godchild" is much darker, and "Nana" is more like a soap opera than anything I could've expected. Not to mention the magazine came with a free DVD and mini-manga sampler (both for Ultramaniac; I haven't watched or read it yet). The only thing I've really got to complain about it is that there are parts of the magazine that seem to be more like an issue of "Seventeen" than a manga magazine. There's a "Sephora" ad on the back, and there are one or two fashion segments in there. While the fashion segment I've got in mind's got a picture of the heroine from "Nana" slapped in the middle of it (and says that it's supposed to be a "dress like" section), I think it was sort of stupid to put it in there. If Nana had dressed up extreme or something (like a giant turtle or a ninja or something), I could understand it. But... aw, well. The tons of color pages and beautiful artwork throughout makes up for it in my opinion. If you're living with your parents, though, you might wanna hold back on buying it. While nothing in the magazine is above PG-13 level (or at least pushing it...Godchild's really gory...), it is sort of weird to see Nana and her boyfriend getting...intimate. |
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Clamp School Detectives Wmrecorder 9.14 patch |
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 Okay, basically, the story is that three incredibly gorgeous 12, 11, and 10 year old boys (who also make up the student council for the Elementary portion of the school) run around the prestigious CLAMP school and solve crimes for the good of woman-kind. While it may seem stupid (and most of the time, it is. Only in the good way), this is one of the best mangas I've read in ages. While the boys and their love intrests may have a bit of an age difference ( the 11 and 10 year old's "girlfriends" are in kindergarten), it's really cute. It's also got some stuff in there that hints at a darker background story, such as the then 9-year-old chairman being held hostage, and the then 8-year-old secretary having to save him with his awesome ninja skills (bit like D.N. Angel, actually)...at gunpoint. The rating is a little off... in some of the chapter covers there are pictures of the chairman with women hanging all over him. Overall, though: I love the manga, was overjoyed when I found out there was an anime, and was laughing almost the entire volume through. The cute and action scenes really work together...and the occasional giant penguin float doesn't hurt. |
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Name:
Maggie
Name:
Lady Shadow
