Kawaii characters: Kuromi

I decided to resurrect this little series of mine about kawaii characters! 

If you are a long-time reader of mine, you might remember I did an entry about Kiiroitori some years ago! I guess the point of this series was so reveal the backstories and information about kawaii characters that might fall in the shadow of the most popular ones (like Hello Kitty, My Melody and the like). Also, if you are into kawaii stuff, knowing more about it is never wrong, right? 

Well, today I will inform you about the 
ever mischievous rival of My Melody, namely: 

Kuromi!

Profile:

• Name: Kuromi
  
• Birthday: October 31 (Halloween).
• Personality: Although she looks punky she acts very girlish and she loves handsome guys.
• Hobby: She enjoys writing in her diary. These days, she's into romance stories.
• Favorite colors: Black and Hot Pink.
• Favorite food: Shallots, all kinds of meat, and in recent Kuromi merchandise cherries have been shown. 
   

Kuromi looks like the "evil-version" of My Melody, like you could imagine those "nice angels" and "evil angels" on someones shoulder! However, even though Kuromi is the rival of My Melody, her reason for not liking her is pretty silly. Kuromi loves writing in her diary, and once, according to history, My Melody swiped a page from her diary to wipe Piano the Sheeps nose, and since then Kuromi has furiously recorded every "miss-doing" My Melody has ever caused her. The problem is ,though, that My Melody is most often oblivious to Kuromis reasons to be angry, and most of the incidents are just accidents built on missunderstandings and the like. *sigh* it´s a though world, ey?
My Melody is actually quite into the idea of befriending Kuromi, she doesn´t understand the wrong-doings she causes her at all!

Well, something else that is interesting about Kuromi is that she has a devils-tail and that is her weak point! If anyone were to step on it, she would pass out! Also, sources have it that the pink skull on her cap changes it´s expression according to her mood!

Something I surely didn´t know before I checked her out more, was that she appears in an anime beside My Melody, called "Onegai My Melody"! (This is certainly on my to-watch list!). There she is the leader of a though biker-gang, with 5 members. Those are :

• Nyanmi, the purple cat
• Wanmi, the orange dog
• Konmi, the white fox
• Chumi, the grey and white rat

They all wear black and drive around in a menacing fashion!

Now, there isn´t too much else I can say without spoiling further into her anime-apperance, so I´ll leave that up to you to find out  ;-) 

Are you a Kuromi fan?

Here are some nice Kuromi things I found that you can get online!

It´s always great to expand that kawaii-character collection <3

Kuromi pillow-case

Kuromi and my melody soap-dispensers set

 Kuromi totebag

Kuromi handmade iphone 6 case

Kuromi jewelry box

Well, that´s it for now! I hope you enjoyed a brief introduction to the diverse and adorable character of  Kuromi! ^^ It was really interesting to get to know more about this character! She is quite underappreciated in my opinion! Did you enjoy the entry?

Please let me know what kawaii character you think I should write about next,
in the comments below! ^^ Thank you for reading!

ღ School Idol festival: Love Live! game! ღ

I have wanted to make this little post about a game-app that I have been really into on my iphone lately. First of all I can mention how surprised I was to find a japanese game like this for international usage! It was acctually by discovering the game that I got into the anime it is based on! I guess it´s been some months now since I started playing, but I am still into it, and I know a lot of others like it too, so I thought "hey, why not share it even more people?".
So there you go, a small review coming up of:

Love Live! School Idol Festival

First of all, if you are familiar with the anime series Love Live!, these characters will look familiar to you! They are the exact same as from the show, and they even have the same voices when they speak!

This game is a typical "tap-tap" game, as one of my classmates informed me they were called, meaning that it is a rythmic tapping game, that allows you to tap the beat while you listen to a song! If it sounds weird when described, just think about how the classical game "guitar hero" works.

When you first get started with the game, you have to choose a "leader" for your "main-team". I was really nervous about doing this, because I thought it might mean that this was my permanent leader! Don´t worry too much about it though, because it´s possible to change the characters position around.

The point of the game is to make an idol group consisting of 9 members that you level up and raise to stardom! You can level your main status as well as the characters own status.

The game interface is quite easy to understand. Here is the "home" page:

I took this from my own phone, so you can easily see how the english interface is.
The EXP up on top shows how far I´ve got to go to level-up my over-all level. And the LP on the side shows how much "stamina" I have to play games. Each gameplay takes a certain amount. You can fill up your LP either by waiting for it to do so automatically (but that takes some time) or you could use hearts. Hearts can be bought at the "shop" for a certain amount of real money, and sometimes you get them in the gameplay also, but I´ll leave that for you to find out ;-)

At first when I started out I was really nervous about not getting the whole "build a good team" thing. The game is made up like a "fantasy-card-game-look-alike" when it comes to the characters. Whenever you play a song, afterwards, depending on your score, you get new recruits that you can choose from to put into your team! 

 

You always need to have atleast 9 members to have a usable team, and you can make up to 5 teams in total. As well as using the hearts for getting back your LP, you can also use it to "recruit special 

members". The "special members" are all different versions of the main 9 girls from the actual anime.

"Regular scouting" is for getting the same kind of characters you could get when just playing the game, so it only demands something called "friend-points" also something you get while playing and interacting with other players. You will get more into that part once you get started. 

The "cards" come in loads of different versions. If you happen to get two of the same kind, you can put them together and thereby "idolize" them. When you do, they get into a special outfit and their abilities grow accordingly, as well as their highest level. These special ones help you get higher scores! The character-card above, that I found online, is such an example! The regular ones usually just wear school uniforms or very simple clothing. As well as idolizing, you can ofcourse level each character up! To do so, you need to "practice" them. You can use other members that you have collected when playing songs or actively scouted for practice, but remember
that if you use a member for this purpose, the character will dissapear.
Therefore it´s a good idea to only use the ones you don´t want to keep. 

All your character cards can be found in your "club member list". The ones currently in a team will be marked, and you also get a "warning" if you accidentally choose a member that is currently in a team, for practicing!

 

You get a tracklist when you play. It looks something like this.

The scores you get in each song is reflected in the trophies on top of each song. As you can see there is different "levels" all of the songs, from "easy" to "hard"! in the corner up there you can also see a button that says "b-sides". If you click it, you will find special songs that change every few days. In this category, you also find the "expert" level of gameplay, which is the hardest level.

Lastly, 

I thought I´d show you some actualy gameplay, so that you kind of get the idea of how it works. 

This is a song played in "hard mode" from the "B-sides"
that I found on youtube.

Well! As a last little treat, I thought I´d list my top 5 favourite tunes to play!

1.  Cutie Panther
2. Snow Halation
3. Shiranai Love * Oshiete Love 
4. After school navigators
5. Donna Toki mo Zutto 

 

 

 

Do you play Love Live! School Idol festival?
What is your favourite song? 

I hope you liked this little review/info-post about this game! It is really fun and quite addicting once you get into it, but I´d really reccomend it if you are into J-pop and cute anime. You can get it for both apple and android products in their respective stores!
Let me know what you think in the comments below! ^^

Hope you enjoyed this entry<3

♥ 5 high-school movies to see ♥

Hi ho hello!

Another year has passed and I have finished my exams (but one) and when summer comes, so does free-time! whohoo, right? hehe, well, personally I am one of those freaky people that get depressed very easily in the summer time, because of "too much free time", as I need routines in my life to function. having summer coming along, you´ll just have to create summer-routines!

Well, one good thing about being free, is that you get time to do some of the things you like.

One of the things I like, is watching movies. 

I have this list of movies that I keep adding to, there is just so many interesting-looking ones out there! At the moment, I have a crush on 80´s teenage cult-movies, particularily about high school and such. It´s fun spotting all those famous stars "entering the scene" in their first roles, and you´d be amazed at how different some of them look today! High-school movies in general tend to be entertaining. You have the really good ones that makes you think a lot, and then there´s the brainless ones that makes you roll your eyes to mars and back, and ofcourse, there is the general bad ones, that are so bad that they are good, yeah... 

So I thought, since I could probably write 110 movie-reviews, I´d do a quick little round-up of what high-school themed movies I think you ough to watch! ^^ Now that summer is coming up, and if you are a total loner (like me *cough cough*), why not watch a movie featuring how high school could have been? Or perhaps to sympathise, or see yourself in the characters? Anyway, high-school movies are cool. I hope my little list will inspire you to go look for some other high-school movies yourself, because it´s definitely worth a search, there is sooo many more than you´d believe!

 

1. The Breakfast Club (1985)

This is a classical first choice for getting into watching high-school movies, I know, but it´s still a really good movie. I didn´t watch this myself the first time until my second year of high-school, and I absolutely loved it! Directed by the amazing John Hughes, this 80´s masterpiece features 5 teenagers from different backgrounds, with different goals and prospects in life that are all tossed together in detention one morning, for various reasons, where they are asked to write a paper. Instead of doing as they are told, they start talking with eachother and we get a look into what kind of teenage-angst takes place in a young persons life. This movie has cult status, and it´s not without reason. The main characters all have distinct personalities and traits that will make you like them for different reasons as you watch the movie, and I think it´s a movie many can relate to for various reasons. So, if you are just getting into high-school movies, or have allready watched a bunch, make sure not to miss this one! Must see!

2. 10 things I hate about you (1999)

This movie features a young Heath Ledger (do you need any other reasons to watch this?) getting paid to take out "the meanest girl in school" because the guy who paid him to do so, wants to date her sister, and she can´t go out on a date unless her sister does. Allready sounding complicated right? Well, this movie has all what you´d want from a high-school movie and more! cool teachers, stupid parties and awsome main-characters. A no-brainer but still a good evening awaiting you if you choose this movie. It has long been one of my sisters favourites, so she was the one that got me to watch it in the first place. This was probably one of those movies I grew up watching, so it´s been "with me" for a long time. And hey, now that the 90´s are so "in" I bet you´d get a kick of taking a peek for that reason also. Personally can´t get enough of 90´s fashion, endless tackyness equals cool, right? Well, you´ll have a laugh, and it´ll leave you with a smile, guaranteed!

3. Heathers (1988)

When I first watched Heathers, I did so in anticipation that this would be a movie looking something like "mean girls". Well, the beginning didn´t really surprise me that much, as you enter a high-school in the mid 80´s, where three girls, all named Heather, are the "most popular girls in school", making life misserable for the nerds and haging out with the jocks. Nothing new there. However, our main character (young Winona Ryder) who is a "Heather apprentice", soon befriends a mysterious but cool outcast-guy that she´s in love with, and together they plan a revenge on "Heather nr.1". Things doesn´t exactly go as planned, and well, I don´t want to spoil anything, but let´s just say that this movie was trying to create a satirical and humouristic look upon murder and suicide. I was quite shocked when I watched it, because I didn´t at first get the humour part, and I just thought they portrayed it in a light manner for some sick, twisted reason. However, yet another cult-classic, definitely worth a watch. This movie has great aestethics and the by far the biggest shoulder-  pillows you´ll see in any
                                                                     school-cafeteria. 

4. Ferris Bueller´s day off (1986)

Another masterpiece by John Huges, featuring the ultimate "day off from school" with young Mathew Broderick. Ferris is a high-schooler that is liked by many, a cool guy that knows what he wants in life and knows how to get it. In this movie he basically tells you how to get away with truancy with style. This movie sure shows you how to make the most of a day! From "stealing" his best friends dads car, going to an art-museum, dining at a fancy resturant and somehow ending up the main-attraction on a parade-float! His principal, sensing there is something wrong, is dead set on busting him not being "sick" is after him, making this not only a race against the clock on beating his parents getting back home, but also consequences in school! What can I say, it was a pure joy watching this movie, and I don´t know WHY I haven´t done it before! Definitely an all time high-school classic that everyone should see, atleast once! It has this very typical american humour movie feel to it, making it seem more modern than it´s release date tells us it is.

5. Pretty in Pink (1986)

Ah, I guess you are by now seeing a pattern. Another John Hughes movie, and another classic featuring one of my favourite female actors from the 80´s, Molly Ringwald <3 Anyway, this movie shows a social "outcast", who´s side-job is working in a cool little record shop, suddenly becoming the love-interest of one of the "cool-guys" in school. The main character has awsome clothing-style, she makes most of her clothes on her own, or alter trifted things, so it´s great inspiration! Also, the aesthetics of this movie is gold! It also features that classical twist with the childhood friend being into the main character, but at the time this movie was made, that was perhaps not as cliche as it is now... If you want to see a movie that will leave you inspired, feeling feminine-empowerment and just plain happy, please watch this one.  I hope atleast one of you will come to enjoy Molly Ringwalds acting skills as much as I do, after seeing this pearl of a movie!

Well! That ends the selection of high-school movies I would reccomend to all of you today, even though there is SO MANY more that I could have wrote about, I decided to settle with these for now. perhaps I´ll do another high-school movie reccomendation-post later, if this one is well recieved? ;-) 

Anyway, thank you for reading, and I hope to hear back from you in the comment section below, if you ended up watching one of these movies. Let me know what you think!