Shugo Chara!

Recently I was able to get the Malaysian DVD's of Shugo Chara! which has yet to be issued in the UK or US. The series centres around Amu Hinamori, a Elementary School pupil clash between her popular cool, spicy exterior loved by fellow students and her internal introverted personality. Amu's wish for a character re-birth as would be self leads to the discovery of three colourful eggs that hatch into her guardian characters, Ran, Miki, and Su.

 
The first discs (above) house all 51 episodes of series 1.
This story started off life as a manga following successful serialization in Japan and is currently being aired by TV Tokyo series one having aired from October 2007 and a second series Shugo Chara!! Doki— in October 2008.
The DVD of Series two Part one has the first 15 episodes from that series.

In essence the Guardian Characters aid Amu in discovering who she truly is and help fulfil Amu's dreams. Amu's life becomes much more complex as she struggles to deal with her "would-be" selves and the Seiyo Elementary's Guardians, who recruit Amu as the Joker to search for X Eggs and X Characters, which are the corrupted forms of peoples' dreams. Amu 'restores the eggs' to their original form neutralizing the harm the X Egg cause to all around them. Meanwhile, the Easter Company is extracting people's eggs in search of a special egg called the Embryo. The Embryo is believed to grant any wish to the one who possesses it. However, the process they use creates X Eggs and X Characters. What I like about the story is the way in which it shows how peoples self image can be effected by these 'bad' eggs that started off life as pure but have become corrupted in their pursuit of self interest harming others that get in their way. Equally the story shows how through positive encouragement people can change becoming more pure in thought - practically spiritual in a away, putting others well being first. The first image is that of the series 1 DVD, second the inner disc carrier with the picture at the footprint being that of Series 2 Part 1. 

Hold on to your hats and save those precious eggs from Easter but at last the last 26 episodes of Season two of this much loved anime has finally come out on DVD this week!

This is Amu as a 'Punk' from the Shugo Chara manga

This is your Princess calling!

Every little girl goes through this stage bar the odd exception, my inner child was none and I still can't get it out of my system.

 In your little world you are the Princess, whose world revolves around your needs natural as perceived by you as you live in your imaginary castle complete with it's flag.

In this castle you have servants usually boys to do all the things you want to happen at that very instant and woe betide them if they don't!

Some of us could turn this into a game you played at school recess or at home or in the park and in lots of ways it's really cute as for one thing you have a lovely set out dresses and tiaras and magical slippers.  Yummy!

It's this kind of innocent play that many of us look back on with fondness although acting in that kinda  pushy manner isn't really to be recommended in real life. Give me an outfit and I'll play Princess Pushy with you all day!

Every girls friend

It's a basic truism, that a child and it's teddy bear cannot be separated no matter what and if anything happens to  it it is like a death in the family.
My own Little Girl side is very much alive and kicking having a strong bond with my own teddy bears that I treasure. This image means a lot to me because it illustrates something quite important, the notion of the teddy bear as your 'real' friend and the girl is showing him the stars in the night-time sky because she loves him so much, she wants to share this magical event.
I like many name my teddy bears in age-old  ceremony that binds us together and still frequently hug them, telling them all my secrets - the good as well as the bad in the knowledge they're safe.
Don't ever lose the magic!

Beatles Second Album

This must of been one of the first studio albums by the Beatles I bought.
It was March 1979 if I remember correctly and I spent the weeks allowance on it in a matter of minutes!
The label was a Green Apple which suggests it might of been old stock as the later ones such as my current copy are Purple with the Capitol dome logo.
I still get a buzz from hearing Thank You Girl in stereo.

Kiki's Delivery Service

At the instigation of a online friend from a forum I recently bought this title in the acclaimed Studio Ghibi collection.

Adapted by Hayao Miyazaki from the Japanese childrens book by Eiko Kadono, it is about Kiki - a thirteen-year-old witch, and daughter of a witch - who is eager to leave home and spend a year working away from home. Her only talent is flying on her broomstick, but she sets off with her black cat JiJi) and finds a big city by the sea that she decides to live in.

She makes a deal with the bread store owner to work for her board in store that soon transforms into a courier service delivering anything from pies to pets. In this activity she -a polite, cheerful if naive child - encounters the rudeness and spoilt behaviour of others especially of a girl of her own age.

She encounters a boy on a bicycle who becomes her friend but undergoes a crisis of confidence losing her ability to fly. Only by looking into herself can she regains her abilities saving the boy from a Zeppelin flight that goes disastrously wrong.

What I liked about was the attention to detail in the drawings coupled with the message of triumph over adversity it presents.