Baby Steps

I also starting a series, Baby Steps by Kachiki Hikaru which is a Tennis manga. I only have read one chapter of the series and it seems similar to the Prince of Tennis. The difference is that the main character, Eiichiro Maruo isn't a tennis player, but his schoolmate is a tennis player and she aiming to become a professional player.

Characters introduced in the first chapter.

Eiichiro Maruo a.k.a. E-chan by his friends(main character)
His classmate call him All- A because he is always getting perfect grades. He is also sounds like an old man because of his habit of trying to do everything in order.  He wanted to physical exercise and his mom send/force him to the Southern Tennis Club.

 Kojirou Kageyama 
A friend and classmate of Eiichiro

Natsu Takasai a schoolmate of Eiichiro
She is the school idol and is a tennis player aiming to be a pro. She is part of the Southern Tennis Club. For some reason she reminds me of Kyoko Sasagawa from Hitman Reborn, a little ditzy.

Eiichiro's mom
The one that sends him to the Southern Tennis Club since he was saying that he needed more physical exercise.

Coach Morimoto
A tennis coach at the Southern Tennis Club that Eiichiro met.

Hana Yokoyama
A friend of Natsu and a tennis player at the Southern Tennis Club.

Masumi Makihara
A friend of Natsu and a tennis player at the Southern Tennis Club.

Coach Miura
A tennis coach at the Southern Tennis Club.

Summary
  It starts off at school and Eiichirou Maruo a.k.a. E-chan is introduce being at school when the teacher called his name to do a math problem on the board that he solves easily. During the lunch break , he eating with his friend Kageyama when all the sudden a girl, Natsu Takasaki from another class asked her friend for her history's notes. The friend told  her to ask Eiichiro for his notes since his is better. Once E-chan gives Natsu his notes, she trips and falls, spilling a lunch on the notes. She just cleans the note and apologizes to E-chan as she leaves.

  After school Kageyama invites E-chan to the Shogi club since he hasn't join any clubs. E-chan just said that he had a busy schedule and that his day off he was going to do physical exercise. He arrives home, his mom had some friends over, she hands him a catalog for a tennis club nearby. Giving him money to eat out before he heads out to see the the Southern Tennis Club. Telling his mom that he is going to take the money to eat out but wasn't interesting in going to the Southern Tennis Club. Getting scold by his mom, who told him that he was the one that wanted to exercise. In the end he headed to the Southern Tennis Club, where he found his schoolmate, Natsu practicing with another tennis player. An elementary student notices him and starting yelling to Coach Morimoto that there was a spy, Natsu was the first to arrive and recognize N-chan as her schoolmate. She introduce everyone to N-chan. He told the Coach Morimoto that he was just looking and doesn't want to join. Coach Morimoto told him to stay and watch, N-chan ended up warming up with the other members of the club. He ends up collapsing during the warmup, when he comes to he decided to go home but bumps into Natsu. He gave her an excuse that he had to go study and she asked if he enjoys studying which N-chan doesn't have an answer. N-chan asked Natsu if she had fun with her hobby, which she answered that it wasn't a hobby because she wants to become a pro. Then she returns to practice and Coach Morimoto told him about the club, she also told him not to his mom that he collapsed during the warm-up. To which he agrees not to tell. He asked the Coach what he had to do to build his stamina and she answered running. He gets on the bus to go home, but ends up getting off and running. He wasn't able to make it home because he run out of stamina and had to call his mom to pick him up. That caused his mom to worry about him and asking him what happen which he assure her nothing happen.

Ratman

A few weeks ago I started reading a manga called, Ratman by Inui Sekihiko.

So far the chapters that I have read are about six chapters of the series.
 It is about a High School student, Shuto Katsuragi, who wants to be a superhero, but because of his height believes that he is too short to be a hero. Because of that reason he drinks a lot of milk to grow taller.  He wants to be a superhero like Shiningman who saved his life when he was younger. It doesn't really say what the incident, but that it happen seven years ago. Also he two younger sisters who are twins, that make fun of  him because of his Shiningman's chant that he does every morning before going to school.

To become a superhero is pretty much easy because of products that are sold make it possible. Another thing is that they have to pass a test to obtain a Hero's License.  He does become a villain and not because he wanted to, he was trick into signing up to Jackal and evil organization.

The character that are introduced in the chapters that I have read.

Shuto Katsuragi : Who wants to be a hero like Shiningman. He was given an Append Gear by a fake hero and made to sign a contract with Jackal. He thought he was a hero as he saved Mirea from the villain. Later he found out that it was a trick and that he was now an antihero. He is the test subject and became Ratman, the gear makes him taller and also makes eat a lot more than before.

Ana and Yuna Katsuragi: Twins that make fun of their brother's Shiningman chant. Not much is known about them.

Nozomi Katsuragi: Shuto's mom

Kanta Matsui: Shuto's friend that likes heros

Shiningman: A hero that saves Shuto when he was younger

Mirea Mizushima: Shuto's classmate that nobody talks to except Shuto. She overhears him saying that it isn't possible to become a hero(because Rio saved him). She calls her older sister, Crea Mizushima to make an arrangement to get Shuto to become Ratman.

Rio Kizaki: Daughter of the president of the Hero's Association. She shares the same dream as Shuto and upper classman. She saves Shuto from some delinquents who Shuto accidentally kick his shoes and it landed on one of the delinquents' head.

Crea Mizushima: Older sister of Mirea and caretaker since their parents have died. She is the leader of Jackal and the creator of Ratman. She considers Shuto a test subject. She trick Shuto into joining Jackal by using her younger sister as bait(Shuto didn't know at that time that they were sisters.)to make him become Ratman to "save Mirea".

Gengo Mizushima: Mirea's and Crea's grandfather who took care of them when their parents died.

Jackies: Henchmen of Jackal that wear skeletal costumes and the ones who kidnap Shuto.

Ankaiser: A hero that only does it for fame and consider it a job.  He was the first hero that Ratman encounters.

Overall Ratman is pretty interesting and has to do with an "evil" organization that wants to get back at he Hero's Association. I'm going to continue reading and see how it turns out.

The reason I pick the manga was because I just saw the name while I was reading Beelzebub latest chapter and recommended it. Also because I was curious what Ratman was about.

Introduction and anime One Piece

Hi, I'm hinatafan1. My first post will be about the anime/manga One Piece.

I have another blog at http://hinatafan1.wordpress.com that has the same information as this one.

  I kept overlooking One Piece even when most people claim that it was the best manga/anime, I didn't like how the character were drawn. I was more into Naruto and Bleach since the drawing are nicely done and I like the story line. I decided to watch One Piece when it was being dubbed in English and was on 4kids, I only watch a couple of episodes of that horrible dub version and stop watching it. A couple of months I decided to watch youtube to see what anime were new, the anime clip that I saw was of a cute reindeer wearing a hat riding on a ship with his crewmates. I was wondering what the anime was so I looked around until I found out it was One Piece. Deciding to give the anime another chance but this time in Japanese and since then I haven't stop watching and reading it. I'll never make the same mistake of judging a book by it's cover.

Basic summary

  It's about a 17 year old, Monkey D. Luffy who's dream is to become the Pirate King and find the One Piece. That dream was inspired by a Pirate, Shanks, who also gave Luffy his strawhat for safe keeping until they meet again when Luffy becomes a pirate. Luffy also ate a Devil Fruit, the Gum Gum Fruit that gives him the ability to stretch but he can never swim since the ocean zaps his energy.

This is a spoiler for some that haven't seen the anime or read the manga.

The main characters(Before the two year skip)

Strawhat Crew(list in the order they met)

Monkey D. Luffy- Captain, Devil fruit user and part of monster trio

  He is 17 years old when he sets off to become a pirate. He isn't very smart but when he sets his mind on something, his crewmates, especially Nami, Usopp, and Chopper can't change his mind. He relies on Nami for navigation, on Zoro for sword fighting, on Usopp for lying, and on Sanji for cooking. For most of his crew that he ask to join  will decline the offer but doesn't take no for an answer. An example, when he asked Zoro to join his crew and Zoro said no, Luffy answered that he decline his answer. But in the end Zoro join his crew.

Roronoa Zoro-  Swordsman and part of monster trio

  He is 19. Zoro has a really bad sense of direction that he even get lost going in a straight path. An example being when Nami during the Enies Lobby arc said that they were going up the stairs, Chopper and Sanji go up the stairs while Zoro went running towards a doorway. He trains a lot and is always fighting with Sanji. Nami always takes advantage of him. His dream is to become the best swordsman.

Nami - Navigator

  She is 18. She hates pirates and steals for them in order to buy her home island from the Fishman Arlong who is a pirate. Her adopted mom was killed by Arlong and she was taken hostage when she was younger because of her ability to draw maps. Not only that, she can also predict the weather. She also loves belly(it's a form a currency in the One Piece universe) Her dream is to draw the map of the world.

Usopp - Sniper a.k.a. Sogeking

  He is 17. He uses a sling shot as his weapon and he tells a lot of tall tales that Chopper and Luffy always believes. He is also a coward and gets scared easily. His mother died when he was young and his father is in Shanks crew. He is part of the weak trio that include Nami and Chopper(technically Chopper isn't weak, he just thinks he is weak).His dream is to be a brave warrior of the sea and to visit Elbaf.

Sanji - Chef and part of the monster trio

 He is 18. He fights with his legs since he doesn't want to damage his hand. He is always fighting with Zoro over the simplest things.  He flirts with any attractive woman. Nami takes advantages of him to get what she wants and to protect her. His dream is the see the all blue where all the fish of the four seas connect.

Tony Tony Chopper - Doctor and devil fruit user, human human fruit. Reindeer with a blue nose.

  My favorite character of the series is Tony Tony Chopper the talking reindeer who has a funny habit of insulting the person that gives him a compliment  as he does a little dance. He is also the youngest of the crew, he is 15 years old. In being the youngest he is easily influence by his crewmates, even though, he is smart. His dream is to cure all illness and travel the world with his friends.

Nico Robin - Archaeologist and devil fruit user, Flower flower fruit

  She's 28 years old. She used to work with Baroque Work, she was known as Miss All Sunday and was partner of Mr. Zero.

  She can read Poneglyph, which is forbidden by the World Government. Her home island, Ohara was destroyed by the World Government when they found out that the archaeologists knew too much.  Robin was the youngest archaeologist and the only survivor of the island. Her only friends were the scholars and Saul, a giant who help her escape the Ohara. The children in the island were scared of her because of her devil fruit power and called her demon. Since the age of 8 she was on the run from the World Government. She always betrayed the people she work for except the Strawhats. Her dream is to find out about the void century.

Franky - Shipwright

  He is 34 years old. He is a Cyborg but only in the front because he couldn't reach his back. He tells Usopp not to pock him on the back because it hurts. Using soda to fuel himself up and to able to do some of his attacks. If he fuel himself with different drinks, he ends up with different personalities.

His dream is to travel in the dream ship he built to the end of the Grand Line and the ship to be able to withstand hardships.

Brook - Musician, swordsman and devil fruit user, Revive revive fruit

  He is 88 years old(but is very childish). He is already dead, but came back to life because of the devil fruit that he ate. He took a long time finding his body and when he did his body was already bones except his afro. Also he ask any girl if he could see their panties and he is also making bone jokes.

His dream is to reunited with crewmate from the Rumbar Pirates, Laboon a whale that is waiting at Reverse Mountain because of a promise to return. But also to play the last song that was recorded in a Tone Dail with his former crewmates as they started to die.

Current ship - Thousand Sunny

Their second  ship that used after Water Seven arc. The ship was built by Franky using Adam wood which is the strongest wood in the One Piece world.

Former ship - Going Merry

They got the ship from Kaya after the event with Kuro, it was designed by Merry. Kaya is also a friend of Usopp .

The Going Merry's dream was to sail together with the crew forever. Which didn't happen because after it rescued the crew at Enies Lobby it broke in half ending it's dream.

The Strawhats have the World Governments as an enemy since they burn the flag of the World Government at Enies Lobby. The reason they burn the flag was so Robin wouldn't feel that they were going to abandoned her  as she feared.  And also if Robin's enemy was the World Government then it was also the Strawshats' enemy.

Another thing that I like is that even the female crew members can fight unlike some anime/manga that I have seen/read. Also all the characters that are introduced are always unique. For that reason I like all of the characters regardless if they are the main characters or the villains.