Bleach character book 1 and 2 - REVIEW!

Bleach Souls (Character book 1)

Bleach Masked (Character book 2)

Hey everyone!
So, the second Bleach character book has just been released in English (yay!) and as with everything related to Bleach, I just had to buy it. This post is going to compare the two books, give some opinions and generally tell you about the books! Enjoy!

Just so you know what kind of Bleach fan it is that's reviewing this, let me say, I'm a BIG fan!!!


Both books are paperback, with a shiny, almost 'metallic' style cover on the colour parts.
They're a little taller than a manga book, and both are thicker! The first book is thicker than the second, I think because it has some comic pages in too, which the second doesn't have.

There's an interview in both, as well as a fold out poster in the start of each. (I say poster, but I doubt anyone would ever actually pull this out!)
The first one has some stickers (again I doubt people like to use these as it would make the book incomplete! haha) and they both have a few coloured pages at the start which are pretty awesome.

Approximately half the colour pages in book 1 are repeats of art found in the All Colour But The Black art book, but the colour pages in book 2 are not in this art book. (Often they seem to be colour versions of chapter title pages from the manga)

Both books provide interesting charts and diagrams on a number of things - I personally think the charts in Book 2 are better as the Espadas and their Fraccions are harder to group together.

The general format of the books is to introduce the characters, give a little profile and some mentions of where they appear in the storyline. This is almost always accompanied with big art ( black and white ) and lots of information around it.
A lot of the information around the characters really are just quite obvious things though, or things I would almost describe as a personal interpretation. So it's interesting but it's sometimes just a description of what happens at a certain time.

So...
BOOK 1

Good points:
- Colour pages are good and well printed
- Interview with Tite Kubo and Ichigo's Japanese voice actor is translated and interesting
- Lots of nice black and white line work arts

Bad points:
- Not a lot of new information (I knew pretty much all of it already from being an avid fan)
- Not all pages are in colour

BOOK 2

Good points:
- Colour pages of pictures never released here in colour
- 'Event' time lines for each of the important characters is very interesting
- Gives good guide into the relationship between the Espadas etc etc
- Kon's 'Let me just say this' is hilarious

Bad points:
- No bonus comics
- Book stops coverage at volume 37 so some information is still labelled "top secret" (like Halibel's number etc)


Over all I think these are worth getting as an interesting reference guide or something to flick through! However, I wouldn't recommend these unless you are a medium to big fan!

My KPop biases

T-ara - Jiyeon

SNSD - Jessica

2NE1 - CL

Who are your biases? ^^

My Countdown of Top Ten T♔ara Songs!

My Countdown of Top Ten T♔ara Songs!

10
T.T.L. (Time To Love)

A catchy song with great rapping!

9
I Go Crazy Because Of You 

Another great song combining a variety of vocal styles.

8

Apple Is A

A really cute song! I also like the Japanese version.

7

Lies (Dance version)
I love this song! I would like to have the Japanese version too from Roly Poly Japanese single A.

6

Cry Cry
A slightly slower song with a great feel to it!

5

Bo Peep Bo Peep

Soooooo cute! I love this!

4

Lovey Dovey

Super fun and super catchy! Also great to sing to

3

Roly Poly

Love the old fashioned theme around Roly Poly, and this has an awesome dance!

2

I'm Really Hurt

One of my fav T-ara songs of all time, it has a unique feel and great vocals.

1

Like The First Time

Love this! Such a great song, it's my current fav!


So, what is everyone else's favourite T-ara songs? :D

In other T-ara relatedness, I so hope that the group doesn't lose any members. I like T-ara how they are!

PS. Do you have a bias? Mine is Ji Yeon because she has the exact same birthday as me, including the year! 

My favourite manga volumes!

Favourite manga volumes

Bleach 36 is my favourite manga volume of all time! I love the backwards time jump, and I think it is a brilliant volume, filled with action, humour and character development. Seeing Tite Kubo's art work progress so much is really great too! If you are a Bleach fan I think this is certainly a good one to own, I read it a lot, along with 37 which finishes the 'Pendulum' arc. I'm really excited for this to come out in the anime.

 (Note: it won't make much sense if you don't start from the beginning however)

The final volume of the great Full Moon! This is a really good Shoujo manga, and the final volume is probably the best one. I really liked collecting this series, especially as it was relatively short to collect. It's also got lovely art work (Arina Tanemura is very talented!) and a great storyline. I am excited to buy the art book!

This is when the story for Tegami Bachi really starts to get going, and it has quickly become one of my favourite mangas. ( Interesting fact: this was given to me as a present from  ❀Owlish Pirate☆ !)

I love Tegami Bachi all the way so far, and I think the art style is very unique. This volume has colour pages, which I wish they had kept in the later ones. 

I very much loved the first Vampire Knight, sadly I began to lose interest in the story around volume 8! But I really enjoyed the first 5 at least, and it is worth buying for the art too! The detail in the hair is really great, so inspiring!

Where to buy: all of these are available on Amazon at the moment.

So there you have some of my favourite ever volumes! What about everyone else? ^^

(Note: All the pics are not owned by me) 

Buying Japanese books/CDs and kPop for people the UK!

Hi everyone!!

So my first post is for everyone who is trying to get cool stuff over here in the UK but isn't sure where to start. I've had some experience with ordering from different sellers and websites, so I'll share with you guys!

First things first, customs charges. If you are ordering items from abroad, I believe anywhere outside the EU, then you might get charged for bringing it into the country. Usually these charges occur when you spend about the price of £15 and above, not including postage, but don't quote me on that, go check it out for yourself on the Customs website, as the amount changes! (Read on for advice on buying items over £15)

Secondly, be aware that if you pay for stuff through PayPal and they have to change the currencies, they will charge you for it! I've found this to be about £1ish - just something to look out for. It's annoying as they don't even tell you they're planning to do it! But the plus side of PayPal is that if anything went wrong, you can get your money back!

So, soundtracks and kpop! So maybe you are interested in a game soundtrack, but not sure where to buy it or who to buy it from? Well, let me assist you with some links and advice! Hooray! It's much nicer to have a real copy of something like this, than simply listening to it off YouTube. Kpop in particular I think it is very much worth getting the Korean CDs because the packaging is something else - so very cool! (Check out youtube unboxings!) Downloading from iTunes is such a shame when you can have some lovely items!

If it's on eBay for under £15 then I think these sellers are good choices:

Pandoramusic : I have used this seller many times for kpop CDs and the items always arrive really well bubblewrapped! My only slight complaint is that the CDs sometimes have a teeny tiny defect, like a small scratch or dent, but I am fussy, I think most people wouldn't even notice!
I've also found their prices to be good, and when you email to contact them they are friendly and quick to reply - always a bonus!

Catchopcd: I haven't used this seller myself, but my friend has and has found them to be good! They also sell some soundtracks too. I would use them without any worry. Tip: Their website is sometimes slightly cheaper than their eBay shop.

Now, if you're looking for art books, or any music over £15, or indeed models, merchandise, kdrama and other awesome stuff, yesasia.com is definitely where to go. With no problems with customs to the UK (they send it somewhere else in the EU first it seems and then send it on to you!) and good packaging and service, they're a good place to buy from! Their prices are also much more reasonable for art books than the prices you sometimes see books going for on eBay - and best of all, above about £25, it's free shipping!

Yesasia tip: Can't find what you're looking for? Try finding the Japanese name on the Wikipedia page and searching that instead. It's great for uncovering hidden items on yesasia!

For Korean cosmetics, I can recommend the eBay seller cosmetic.love , their posting was very fast and the items were great and well packaged. Also, they include lots of (well about 3) free samples to try!


However! I know you sometimes just do not want to wait 2 - 4 weeks or longer for post. So what about buying from the UK?

Amazon UK, of course are well worth a look! They stock some great English published manga character guides and art books, as well as sometimes stocking kPop. Something which looks great that has just come onto Amazon are some Studio Ghibli soundtracks, I think would be well worth a go. I can also recommend the Studio Ghibli library art books, they are lovely, big, and best of all - in English!

Viz media do a lot of great products for anime and manga fans in English, and Udon entertainment also have some great art books. (I particularly recommend the Shigenori Soejima art book, and the Okami art book, if you can find it!)

So! I hope this post helped anybody! Don't forget, even if you aren't in the UK you can still use a lot of these sites. Let me know where your favourite places to buy are! Remember too, if you aren't sure, it's best to use somewhere well known and recognised, or go through eBay, where you can shop securely!

Introduction: Hi everyone! Welcome!

Hi everyone!
Welcome to my new blog  SUPER CUTE SUPER ^_^

I hope to blog on the following topics (and more!)

1. kPop music, the CDs, where to buy them (for the UK!)
2. Game reviews, as well as reviews of game soundtrack CDs, game art books and where to buy both!
3. Anime/manga art books in general
4. Fashion and cosmetics, including Korean cosmetic brands
5. Anything else which I like a lot!

I hope to take nice pictures to show you all the inside too, to help with deciding whether to buy!

My favourites..

K-Pop bands:
2NE1, T-ara and SNSD (I love all equally, can't pick a fav!)

Games:
Ace Attorney, Hotel Dusk, Persona 3, Trauma Centre: Second Opinion, Animal Crossing, Pokemon

Anime:
Soul Eater, Bleach, Fruits Basket, Studio Ghibli, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Manga:
Bleach, Tegami Bachi, Ultra Maniac, Full moon

So please look out for my posts and I hope you enjoy reading what I write!