HEART STATION

I am yet to watch an anime series that is just as sweet (Or sweeter) as Cardcaptor Sakura, especially through the way the series ended. The 3rd season is amazingly emotional in this cute, innocent and special way. I never thought I’d ever give a chance to romantic series, but this one is special, there’s something different about it that I can’t grasp, but it’s there and anybody can notice it.

The series switches focus from Clow Reed (Powerful magician) to Sakura. We follow the story of Sakura trying to discover her own powers, and discovering the power within her, the power of her star, and that’s basically what she uses to defeat the evil forces this time. But there’s a twist. This time, the key to the book of the Clow has changed its form, and therefore, Sakura has to change the cards as well. Transforming the cards from Clow cards to Sakura cards is really exhausting, and can create lots of trouble for her in her life because she needs to rest a lot after each transformation. This season, it’s all about discovering your own powers and learning from your mistakes. Along with the warm feeling of love that only Cardcaptor Sakura can bring to us. Through this new adventure in her life, Sakura and her friends meet many new characters and a few go through transformations into completely different ones:

•  Kerberos: Kero transformed into his true form after Sakura collected each one of the Clow cards and before she turned them into Sakura cards. His personality changes a little, though. He seems a lot more affectionate and kind, less selfish and angry. Kerberos looks like a tiger with angel wings.
• Yue: Yue is Yukito’s true form. Yukito is a fake identity to the protector of the Clow cards, Yue. They also have completely different personalities. Yukito is kind and friendly, while Yue can be cold, but he will do anything to protect the current owner of the cards, Sakura. Yue also looks like an angel.
• Eriol: He seems to have Clow’s presence around him. He is the causer of all the chaos that Sakura has to avoid this season. Later on, he confesses that he is the reincarnation of Clow and that he needed Sakura to turn every card into Sakura cards, or else they would become average, powerless cards, so that’s why he challenged her so many times.
• Spinarel: Just like Kero, he is a little plushie-like creature, but looks more like a cat with little wings. He is kero’s counterpart and while Kero likes playing videogames, he likes to read. He can become a really powerful panther-like creature with big, butterfly-like wings.
• Naruku/Ruby moon: Yue’s counterpart. As a human, (Nakuru) she seems to have a crush on Touya (Sakura’s brother) and is really affectionate towards him. She’s really cute and is always friendly. As Ruby moon, she seems more serious and powerful, she takes the form of a lady with large, pink butterfly wings.

This season, there were moments where you felt the feelings of the characters and I really loved that. These were the most marking moments for me: [Spoilers]

• Heartbreak: When Shaoran told Meilin (His cousin and ex-girlfriend [Even if only she thought it]) that he loved Sakura, she walked away from their house in Japan and ran to Tomoyo’s house and cried on her lap and let it all out. It was really sad, but I loved that scene.
• Sacrifice: In the last battle, (Against Eriol) Sakura had to convert two last cards that would win the battle for her, but she wasn’t strong enough. When Eriol told her that she needed to sacrifice Yue and Kerberos to convert the cards, (They would return if she had enough power and succeeded) she ran to Kerberos and hugged him and cried saying she didn’t want to take the risk.
• Distance: When Sakura listens from Tomoyo that Shaoran is leaving for Hong Kong and he never told either of them. She becomes silent and hangs up the phone. Then she tries to figure out what she really feels for him after he told her he loved her.
• The Bear Factor: Some time before Meilin left for Hong Kong, many girls were interested in making stuffed animals and giving them to whom they had a crush on. Sakura went with Tomoyo and Shaoran to the store and bought herself a kit. But she didn’t know that Shaoran had bought one as well. While she gave hers to Yukito, Shaoran saved his to give it to Sakura, but he never did, until when he was leaving Japan.

The ending of the series was really beautiful and full of emotions. It’s an ending that leaves you thinking, and yet, satisfies your craving to discover what happens between Shaoran and Sakura. Here is the complete last episode! I hope you enjoy!

The Tanabata Matsuri is a festival that celebrates the love between a princess and a peasant of her kingdom. The father of the princess did not respect the relationship, for it was all about love and they forgot to work. He got really mad and separated both of them, he put each of them in each side of the sky, separated by the milky way, and in Japanese beliefs, they encounter once a year, and that’s on the 7th day of the 7th month.

I got really excited last year when I saw one of my favorite television program hosts (Daniele Suzuki) go to the festival and show us a little about it. She went around looking at the various presentations, we saw what kinds of food they had there and a lot of the beauty in the traditional decorations set around the area of Liberdade.

This year I really wanted to go there, for it’s the neighborhood with the most concentration of Japanese citizens in Brazil, and that’s what Liberdade is known the most for. My mother and I really planned this trip, it’s too bad that I wasn’t able to contact a few of my friends and that the rest of them were traveling, since it would have been fantastic to share this experience with them. At first, it was planned that way, we were bringing some friends, but then we decided to go by ourselves, just as a family.

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. to get there in time (10:00 a.m.), since São Paulo is 1-2 hours away from Campinas

The exotic, yet urban view of Liberdade

(Where I live). Everyone was very cooperative, and the first thing we saw that indicated we were getting close to our destination was the exotic, and yet urban style of the area. It was really cute to look at the contrast between Liberdade and the surrounding areas.

We knew we were getting somewhere, then we saw the beautiful fair, with colorful

Entrance of the festival

traditional decorations, flags, tents everything all set up and waiting for the noisy crowd to arrive. We were lucky we got there just when it began, since later on, it’d be impossible to move around with so many people in one place.

We got there and we looked at all the scented foods and feasted on the beautiful decorations, for we knew people worked hard to create all these colorful hand-made balloons that so beautifully completed the Japanese atmosphere of the fair,

Beautiful hand-crafted balloons

A bamboo with a few wishes hanging from it

and even though we were really busy eating delicious foods, we all knew that my mother was looking for the tent where we purchase little strips of paper to write a wish on and then hang on a bamboo tree. This happens because each piece of paper has a color representing a theme (Yellow: money, Blue: holy protection, Pink: love, and so on), and you write your wish on the appropriate piece of paper and hang on a bamboo tree so later it’ll be burned and brought to the princess and the peasant to make it come true. They will only be able to meet again next year if they make every wish come true. My mom decided to pick the red (Passion) and blue (Holy protection) wish-paper and I picked the yellow one (money), my sister picked up a green one for peace. very happily, we wrote what we wanted on the little scrolls

Our wishes and a few others

and hung them on a bamboo tree next to a tent.

We went on, looking at the fair and my mom was having a blast. She bought lots of things for her and she loved the friendly Japanese ladies at the tents (Brazil is the second most Japanese-populated area other than Japan [Which is number 1]) and she was having a really good time. I was too, of course. The stores all had really adorable things, and I bought myself a pair of wood sandals to walk around at home. They’re really comfy. We passed by a manga shop and later on, met up with my dad that was at a meeting. We had lunch in a Chinese restaurant and we left.

It’s too bad I didn’t get to see the wonderful Japanese presentations of fan-dancing or popular culture presentations. We got to see a Cosplayer, though, and it was an amazing trip. My mom can’t stop telling me how much she loved it! I’m so happy everyone loved it so much! We’re surely returning next year!

I also found out where to order an original Portuguese Cardcaptor Sakura manga. Even though it’s from somebody else, it’s in excellent conditions and I hope I win the auction since it’s really rare.

For a while now I have been downloading and watching the Portuguese version of the Cardcaptor Sakura series, and I have already gone through the first 46 episodes of the anime, this means I have watched every episode of the first 2 seasons.

• Touya: Touya is Sakura’s older brother and is always teasing her and making fun of her, but deep

  

  The Characters of Cardcaptor Sakura

  inside, he loves her really much and really cares for her. He can see spirits and feel supernatural things, and that’s what caused Sakura to be so scared of ghosts.

• Yukito: Sakura has a huge crush on Yukito, and so does Shaoran. Yukito is really unpredictable and is Sakura’s brother’s best friend. He is really sweet to everyone, and maybe that’s why he has such a big fan list. Later on, it’s discovered that he isn’t real, he is Yue, another guardian of the book that Sakura had opened.
• Tomoyo: Sakura has been friends with Tomoyo long before when the story begins. Tomoyo is Sakura’s #1 fan and loves to videotape anything that happens to Sakura, especially when Sakura is collecting the Clow Cards. Tomoyo is also Sakura’s cousin, and is always loyal to her and never loses her faith in Sakura. She also loves to design and make clothes for Sakura to wear during her adventures!
• Kero: The guardian of the cards. He looks like a little stuffed animal and loves to eat and play video games. He and Sakura are a great team to stop the Clow Cards! He loves to show off and believes that he can do anything and that he is the best.
• Shaoran: In the beginning, he was Sakura’s rival. Shaoran came from Hong Kong just to retrieve the Clow Cards that Sakura released. In the beginning, he was pretty much an enemy to Sakura, questioning her powers and bringing her down. But later on, they become really good friends and collect the cards as a team. Shaoran also has a hard time expressing what he feels and can seem really cold most of the time.
• Meilin: Meilin came from Hong Kong some time after Shaoran and is his cousin. She loves Shaoran and always introduces herself as his girlfriend. She also feels like Shaoran doesn’t feel for her the same thing she feel for him. She’s really loud and extreme, but always fun and egocentric, which makes her one of the most fun characters.

Cardcaptor Sakura is one of these series that can be changed around in one episode, and then you have to fit all the puzzle pieces together and think “Right! How haven’t I noticed this before?!” Which is one of the reasons for the show having such a big number of fans. The soundtrack is irresistible and all the characters are really bubbly and cute, the anime is perfect for all genders and ages.

The show can also be really mysterious at times as well, for not much is explained. Many people suspect that Touya and Yukito share more than friendship towards each other and that Shaoran’s crush on Yukito might also hint something else. It’s really fun seeing how these hints are all put together and to notice how you were completely oblivious to that when you were a kid, so, with these subtle hints of more grown-up themes (That shouldn’t be labeled as such), it makes it appropriate for all ages.

It’s too bad that the Brazilian versions of the manga are in really limited stock, and the first manga might even be over, for I would love to have the collection in Portuguese as well.

As you watch, you feel like you are watching the characters grow and you watch them experience new things and it’s really fun to see what happens to them during these situations!

All the elements that make Cardcaptor Sakura so original are meant for everyone to watch and I hope if you get the chance to check out the Anime, you do! For it’s a completely different Anime full of wonderful characters and settings and an involving story-line!

Time. Life. Death. These are things I cannot understand at all. Religion doesn’t help, science is incomplete everything else is useless… I don’t have a philosophy of how death is, be it if we’re going to live in never-ending darkness, feel our decomposing bodies be eaten by vermin, go to heaven or re-incarnated, I don’t know, and it freaks me out, since I don’t know if I should live my life like I want to, or if I should worry about my sins, since I don’t want to go to the bad side of the other side (If there is one, of course).

It’s really odd how time can be so slow and yet so quick… I feel like it was yesterday that I was being dragged out of the 1st grade A class because I was actually from 1st grade B and my teacher seem like she was mad, and here I am today, moving on to high school. I miss the days that I so eagerly wanted to pass and the days that I wished that I’d graduate and just move on, out of school turned into days I wish I would never leave, since I don’t know what awaits me.

This summer vacation, I spent a lot of time in the past. I took out old video games and downloaded old television series from when I was younger and I’m having a blast watching playing the games that I loved so much through elementary. I’m watching Cardcaptor Sakura all over again in Portuguese to better captivate the essence of time (Since I used to watch it in Portuguese before), and I forgot how much I loved it! I had some of the manga, even though I never read it, and it’s so good to return to the time when I was in elementary through the series.

I also have a list of songs that marked a part of my life that whenever I listen to that song, I remember how sad or how happy I was at the moment. I wish this will never go away. Some of these songs are:

As Horas (Marjorie Estiano) : Happy times when my sister bought Marjorie’s album and we’d listen to this song in recommendation of the lady that worked at our house and we’d bring the radio to the kitchen to listen to the song with her and she’d talk about the soap opera that the song was from.

BLUE (Utada Hikaru) : Last summer vacation, When my family and I were returning to Miami, I was roaming through a few song of Hikki’s and getting to become more familiarized with her music, and I came across BLUE. The whole trip was by car, and I fell asleep listening to it. When we got to Miami, I woke up and loved the song. It became kind of an anthem of Miami for me!

RAINBOW (Ayumi Hamasaki) : I was sleeping in the car listening to this song when my neighbor came crying to my sister and I and she told us about our dead cat. This song still has the depressing essence of death to me.

Nichiyou No Asa (Utada Hikaru) : This song reminds me of the beginning of my friendship with Cary and Sofy together and I used to listen to this song all the time with Sofy while we shared my iPod’s earphone. It was during the beginning of 7th grade and I remember that time with so much joy!

These are only 4 of the infinite songs that I have in my head reminding of moments that I was so emotional about. I love it when this happens, for I can keep the memory alive whenever I listen to the songs. This may not always be so positive, but through a certain moments, I can remember more moments. That’s why time is so strange to me. I don’t understand it, and yet, sometimes I do.

I’d like to add a video to this post that reminds me of the beginning of this year, back in August, when I wasn’t expecting so many changes in only one year. I love the song, and I love the moments it reminds me of. The name of the song is Sangurasu and it’s by Utada Hikaru. Enjoy!

These days I have been really into Ayuu’s work. It’s not my style, to be honest, sometimes it might be a little too much rock for me, but if I listen to the same song twice, I completely become addicted. This is what happened to Mirrorcle World, a song that served as an interlude (Or introduction) to Ayuu’s latest album, GUILTY. What usually happens to these interludes that are as good as average-sized songs is that they’re turned into average-sized songs. We see this happen with Utada Hikaru (言葉にならない気持ち), Koda Kumi (Get It On, Black Cherry) and Ayumi Hamasaki.

I decided to listen to Mirrorcle World a few days ago, but I wasn’t a great fan of the song at first, but the PV was beautiful. Today, I woke up with the beginning of the song stuck in my head, and I was surprised that I liked the song that was ringing in my head for so long. I decided to download the album and get a better listen. The song suddenly became one of the best I’ve ever heard. The whole single, actually, with remixed tracks celebrating her 10th anniversary. I love how the tracks (Except for Life (Original Mix) may not be the kind of music I usually listen to, but I still loved the single and can’t stop listening to it. It’s a great release by Ayuu!

As a glimpse of her masterpiece, here is the beautiful video of Mirrorcle World. Shot in Paris. Enjoy!

I like how Ayumi Hamasaki celebrates important dates of her career and not only her anniversary. She celebrates her debut album’s release date (January 1st) with many releases and even concerts, these concerts, that last from December 30th to January 1st are her countdown concerts! She also releases her Best albums on January the 1st as a celebration of her debut album. I think this is really interesting, for it proves that she’s making a career that she wants to make perfect and that she really enjoys working for what she works for! Her latest countdown tour DVD was aired on national television (In Japan) and it’s already available for pre-order on YesAsia. I downloaded the torrent of the concert and it’s pretty amazing! I thought the countdown would happen at the end of the concert, but it was in the middle of my favorite song by her (RAINBOW) just when it was about to change the rhythm. When the countdown was over, the song continued with an explosion of confetti and the concert continued for one more hour. I think the concept is really original and it mixes the emotions of listening to one of your favorite singer with the feeling of a new year, of new challenges and seeing the excitement of others in the audience, living this with you must make things even better!

I really liked the song choice. Even though Ayu sticks a lot to her older songs and adds in a couple of her latest ones, it’s still a great show. I liked performances of songs such as talkin’ 2 myself, STEP you, RAINBOW, Boys & Girls, and glitter. There is even the beautiful performance of one of these dancers that dance with long strands of cloth hanging from the roof as an interlude.

Since the day I began listen to Ayu, I kept asking myself “How does she sound live? Does she sound the same way? But her voice is so different and hard to imagine” and her voice is even better live! At the beginning of the concert, her voice is really smooth, and I don’t understand why, since she was dancing and spinning and it was still unbelievable. Throughout the concert, her emotions get the best of her, and even though she might have gotten off tune sometimes, it was because she was unleashing her energy to the audience, and I love singers who do that! (Koda Kumi and Utada Hikaru do that as well) At the end, she begins to cry and it’s so sad! I felt like hugging her. She was singing while she cried, so it made it clearer, especially when she wiped off her tears. It’s really an amazing concert, and I hope that you get to watch it! It’s beautiful, it’s exciting and just awesome!

Download (Torrent)

When I was growing up (Before I was around 6) I was exposed to a lot of Brazilian culture, and I believe that if I wasn’t placed in an American school here in Brazil, I would grow to become one of the most Brazilian people in the world. Now, unlike everyone else, I don’t listen much to Brazilian music because I dislike it. Although, there are some exceptions.

In the ’90s, I was a great fan of a singer/actress named Angélica Ksyvickis (Or just Angélica, as she mostly known) and she was really famous at the time. I followed all her movies and as a matter of fact, 

the first album I ever bought in my whole album was hers! The name of the album is Angélica - 1997. It’s a really good album and I love listening to it and reminiscing on my childhood and the good times I had in the ’90s! (Even though I was too young to notice, it was the best decade!) Angélica - 1997 has a really strong ’90s vibe and that’s what I love the most about it. Too bad it’s hard to find it now, since my copy got lost, I really miss it!

Her latest album was released in 2002 because she left her singing career aside to take care of her family (She has two boys now!) and of her career as a television host. I sure miss her singing and she’s really beautiful as well. She’s definitely my favorite Brazilian singer even though some songs of hers can be just a little childish, (She used to host a children’s show) I’m always going to love her!

Another singer that I’m really beginning to like after some time is Marjorie Estiano. She started to get some success in 2004 when she became part of a really famous soap opera here in Brazil called Malhação, but since the soap opera was more teen-oriented, she recorded a more pop/rock style of music to add to the soundtrack, and it didn’t fit her. Now that she left that part of her career behind, she chose a more fun and light style that really pleased me when I heard it for the first time! Her sophomore album is really good. There are a few really good ones in her first album, but others that aren’t that much.

She’s winning a lot of popularity with soap operas now because of her cuteness and flexibility in roles and this only contributes for her record sales! For help with her sophomore album, she used Rita Lee’s (Legendary Brazilian singer) help with the lyrics and melody! It turned out really good!

Today, when I was at school and looking at a few things in the internet, I noticed how it’s been so long since I heard about Kuu, so I went to her official website and I noticed that I actually missed on quite a lot! I was pleasently surprised when I came across a preview of her new PVs (Promotional Videos), and one that includes Fergie, even. Her music videos are really good, but I have to say that her song with Fergie was too centered on Fergie, and really, Koda Kumi is so much prettier and so much of a better singer than Fergie, but the song is still good, and the single is awesome. I especially like Lady Go! and Moon Crying  they’re my favorites and awesome tracks!

Never has a series been so syncronized with its own soundtrack! (At least from the ones I’ve watched) Everything is so in touch with the music in the series to the moment’s emotion that it increases the feeling they’re trying to expose to us. I love this about the series and everything else about it. Since my last review, there is one more main character named Tomohiko Ogura.

• Tomohiko Ogura: Ogura got into the series because he works with Eri in the airport. He told Eri about how his wife is living with another man in their house and he was kicked out. He is very shy and timid, but pretty controllable just like Michiru. He ends up living with Ruka, Takeru and Eri because of that and steals a plasma television from his house as a house-warming gift!

[Spoilers] Through the first five episodes, we get more and more interested in the cliffhangers, the relationships and in the strong personalities of the characters and the conflicts they’re involved in. Although, in the beginning we see this very close bond of love and friendship between Ruka and Michiru, it seems like lately, Ruka doesn’t like the fact that Michiru is so controllable by Sosuke (Michiru’s abusive boyfriend) and through the 4th and 5th episodes, I feel like she ‘gave up’ on Michiru. Although Michiru may seem weak and controllable in the beginning, in the 5th episode, it’s interesting to notice how she finally rejects Sosuke after being hit so many times. Michiru gets a key to live with Ruka, Takeru and Eri. It didn’t last long because later, Michiru fights with Ruka because Ruka wants to keep her away from Sosuke because of all the harm he caused, but since Michiru breaks up with him, Sosuke gets depressed (More than he already is) and mysterious and draws Michiru back when he calls her and says he’ll kill himself. Michiru fights with Ruka and goes back to Sosuke. That’s where the 5th episode leaves off.

[Spoilers] About the characters, we learn that they all have their problems and weaknesses, but when they’re together, it’s like nothing matters anymore. It’s a really heart-warming series and every one of the characters has a very strong personality, be it in a positive or a negative way. We learn that Takeru is afraid of relationships because of something in his past. Ruka searches for help because she believes she has a ‘gender identity disorder.’ Michiru is back with Sosuke. Ogura is back to his house with his wife (Nobody really knows what happened), and Eri is unhappy because of everything going on around her.

I can’t stop checking back on Kioku’s website to see if the next episode is already hardsubbed (With subtitles already on the video) because the series is becoming so different from its origins and the mystery, love and warmth involved is captivating! I love the series and can’t stop watching it and Kioku does an amazing job translating from Japanese to English with clear subtitles.

Episode 1 (Torrent Download)
Episode 2 (Torrent Download)
Episode 3 (Torrent Download)
Episode 4 (Torrent Download)
Episode 5 (Torrent Download)

Soon enough, Kuu will be releasing her new single, MOON, and I couldn’t be more excited. From the previews, I can expect an 8-tracked single that’ll blow my mind. The songs all sound magnificent and I’m not just saying this because I love Koda Kumi.

Speaking of great singles, Prisoner of Love, Utada Hikaru’s lastest single, was released today, and Prisoner of Love is already a marvelous track on its own, but the version that come along with it in the single are to make it perfect. I’m going to download it as soon as it’s available and enjoy it whenever I can. I bet this single is going to have great sales because of its popularity between the fans of the dorama Last Friends.

But now, coming back to MOON, to be released on June 11th, 2008. The single will feature American singer Fergie in a collaboration with Kumi for the the song That Ain’t Cool. Moon Crying is the only track from the single that has been released now and it’s an amazing ballad, one of the best I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

For the first two songs to ever be uploaded in This blog, I’d like to upload Moon Crying, by Koda Kumi in the name of my wonderful friend, Sofy! I don’t know the lyrics, but I like the mood that the song transmits… So I’m dedicating it to her, since I just heard that she won’t be studying in EAC anymore with Cary and I.

Moon Crying - 倖田來未

As the second song of my first uploaded set, I chose the lovely new ballad by Utada Hikaru, Prisoner Of Love, but this time, to celebrate her perfect new release, I decided to upload the new version of the song only available with the single, Prisoner Of Love -Quiet Version-. It’s an amazing ballad with the perfect blend of instruments like piano and violin with backing vocals and the wonderful vocal range of Hikki! I hope you like this song as well because I love it as well!

Prisoner Of Love -Quiet Version- - 宇多田ヒカル