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The other day, I was on cloud nine. Back in March, I made a long-awaited order for some anime and manga with my friend, E. Since I'm probably moving to another college next semester, it's no doubt the last time (out of four) that he'll do this for me. The reason it took so long to arrive is because one of the volumes of manga I ordered ('Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei', if you must ask) was just released at the time, and it was out of stock until today; they were waiting for it to be restocked to send us a copy. E and I opted to just change the order to another manga volume.

The stuff came in on Tuesday; it was insane! E had to bring it to the library from his car--it was like he brought it on a silver platter, since I ordered so much stuff ($163 worth--don't even remember if that includes shipping).

The order included the following:
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, volumes 1 and 2
Song of the Hanging Sky, volumes 1 and 2
The Kiddy Grade Veridian boxed set
The second GaoGaiGar: The King of Braves set
Lunar Legend Tsukihime Artbook - Plus Period
Fairy Cube vol. 2

In other words; two boxed sets of anime, five volumes of manga, and a massive artbook. Sweet.

I've been dying to get my hands on JJBA for a while; it's one of the biggest Shonen-action-horror manga in Japan (still being released today, ever since 1987), and proof of a shonen manga done right. No filler, a unique art style (the mangaka is working on a presentation for the Louvre, and certainly one of the more outrageous ('bizarre'?) stories you'll ever find; the villain is a vampire head attached to the body of the main character's great-great-grandfather, who can shoot liquid metal from his eyes, and stop time.

What's crazier, is once I tore into the UPS bag that had my goodies, E. came up, pulled a Zip-Loc bag from his backpack (an in-joke between us--if we share manga, we give it to each other in the zip-locs), and gave me the third volume of JJBA, as a 'going away' present! That was too nice...

Song of the Hanging Sky, on the other hand, is much more tame. It's a series about a medic who escapes from a war to live in the mountains with his dog. He eventually gets tied up in a feud along with a race of winged humans who dress something like Native Americans. If nothing else, the art is very, very pretty.

GaoGaiGar is a Super Robot show about an organization called 'Gutsy Geoid Guard', or GGG, which is dedicated to stopping the evil Zonders from taking over Japan the world. It's unique in that it's a proper tribute of the classic robot shows from the 70's, like Getter Robo. It's not very deep, but it's good fun, what with all of the robot transformation sequences and outrageous attacks ("GOLDION....HAMMEEEEEEEEEER!" wink . Half of it had already been released as DVDs when Media Blasters, the company that licensed GGG in the US, decided to re-release it all as two boxed sets, with the second containing all of the remaining episodes. Unfortunately, the second half isn't dubbed, which is sad, considering Dan Green (a.k.a., the voice of Yugi Muto in Yu-Gi-Oh) isn't around as Chief Taiga, nor will the evil Pizza have the same chilling voice as Griffith from Berserk; Kevin T. Collins. This is one series where the dub is every bit as good as the original language track.

Kiddy Grade is an action series with some girlXgirl undertones; the voluptuous Etoile and the delicate Lumiere are agents for GOTT, a galactic organization dedicated to keeping peace. They uncover a conspiracy, and go settle matters. The story, I've heard, isn't that original, but the art style is pretty good; it's a fun popcorn series all the way. 'Sides, I needed a good fanservice show, and I can't show Moonlight Lady on my shelf if my Mom's around to see it!

The Art Book was for Lunar Legend Tsukihime; it's based on a complex visual novel (a.k.a., a 'dating simulator') from the same people who made Fate/Stay Night. It's about a kid who kills a vampire princess, and ends up protecting her. The story is way more complex, though--it requires its own entry for explanation! The art style for the game is as vivid as the characters, though, among whom is Nrvnsqr Chaos (pronounce that as 'Nero')--a man composed of 666 beasts. Boss. The whole book is in Japanese, so I can't understand a word of the character bios or artist interviews (dammit!), but the art includes Tsukihime and all of its spin-offs, except the anime series. Fair enough.

I would have liked to get something a bit more...adult, but I had been holding off Kiddy Grade for too long--I promised myself I would order it back in early 2007. Also, again, who puts their Japanese smut on a shelf, for the whole world to see?

Regardless, I'm happy with this, and I'm sure to enjoy my anime and manga for a good long time...especially E's gift! After all, possession is nine-tenths of the awesome!