I’m growing more and more bored with Asuka: X is fine but I buy the tankoubon anyway, the same goes for Gouhou Drug; there are no other series I’m following in Asuka at the moment… there will be something new from Kazumi Yuana in Asuka 8 so I’ll wait for that and see if I like it. If I don’t I’ll have to find a new magazine I can read monthly. It’s kind of difficult though cause you either find mags with romance-only or fantasy-only stories in them… and even though I’m buying Asuka mainly for it’s fantasy stories, I’ve liked the debut yomikiri that were more comedy and romance oriented best (like the two stories by Ama Mianko — or is it Amami Anko? there’s only hiragana so I can’t say for sure). I’ve ordered a whole bunch of mags to see if I like the stories in them. I noticed I should’ve ordered Lala too (I didn’t think of Hakusensha mags >_<)... Oh well, I do that in a month or so.
I’ve had so much free time in the last three days and I’ve read a few manga tankoubon. Two of them were Akuma de sourou 4 and 5. I’m enjoying this series more and more. It’s probably one of the cheesiest stories I’ve read in a long time, but in a serious, touching way. Kayano is alright (her constant crying can be a bit annoying at times), so are all the other characters (all very well developed, all with their own background stories). I loooove the fashion in the manga. It’s awesome! I must say I adore Takanashi-sensei for her fashion taste^^ Well, it basically matches my own and that’s why I sometimes enjoy just looking at the character’s clothes as much as I enjoy flipping through Kera. It’s such a shame Akuma de is ending very soon. The last chapter started in Margaret 6. I hope Takanashi-sensei will start publishing a new series soon!

I’ve also been watching a few new anime series. Short impressions:
.hack//SIGN – the first episode wasn’t to thrilling, too RPG-ish. The music was too loud at times, I couldn’t make out the dialogue very well (oh well there were subtitles, but…). The series started to get me with episode 2 though… It has that certain bit of mystery that it needs to keep me interested. Can’t wait to see more of it! (It’s been licensed a few days ago, so fansubs are hard to get. I’ll wait for the commercial release then.)
Chobits – hmmmmm. The animation is well done, so is the voice-acting. The opening and ending are the usual anime j-pop. The story is a bit different than in the manga, I like it nevertheless. The whole magical maid-parody CLAMP style concept is cool, I’m just hoping it’ll get a bit darker (not like I want anything to happen to Chii, no no).
RahXephon – I love it! Wasn’t too thrilled when I saw the first episodes a few months ago but the more I watch of it the more I fall in love with it^^ Ah yes, I love mecha stories… I’m glad there’s neither a whiny Shinji-type character nor an in-your-face-sexy kind of girl character in there. I especially love the more quiet and serious parts (even though the action-packed fight scenes are awesome). I’ve also noticed that the ending theme sounds a bit like the ending theme of Please save my earth… I haven’t watched PSME for years but I think the styles of both songs are very very similar. Oh well, it’s one of Yohko Kanno’s typical styles I guess. I like RahXephon’s OP (Hemisphere by Sakamoto Maya) better though.