Hey f-list!

I have 2 recommendations for you.
First is Hot Gimmick (ホットギミック) - a shoujo manga.

If you love HANA YORI DANGO then you will DEFINITELY love this one as well!!!

I´ve started to read this manga YEARS ago - back then you always had to wait for new scanlations too long and then it was stalled, so I gave up and waited for it to be released here in Germany.
Somehow I forgot about it and just recently discovered that there are FINALLY scanlations for the last few volumes as well.
I still could remember how much I loved that manga and started to read it again - this time till the end (^____^')v



WARNING perhaps not worksafe content!!

This picture shows exactly what this series is about - me thinks! (^3^)
As I´ve already written above you WILL LOVE this manga if you´re a fan of Hana Yori Dango. It took me quite a while (guess up to vol. 6) to recognize various similarities between Hot Gimmick and Hana Yori Dango.
First of all one of the male main characters: Ryoki Tachibana (the guy with the glasses *points above*) - he is SO SIMILAR to Tsukasa (Hana Yori Dango) in many ways ... though not exactly the same of course.
He´s the son of a very rich family (but he´s an only child). He and the other characters live in something called company housing. That means their parents work for the same company/ies and thus live together in that complex (in single apartments).
Ryoki´s mother is something like "the queen" of it, cuz her husband is director / chief or s.th. and can fire whoever he wants.

Hatsumi Narita on the other hand (that girl in the picture above) can´t stand Ryoki ever since they were kids. It seems that Ryoki once pushed her down the stairs ... ever since then she´s totally afraid of him.
Hatsumi lives together with her family (older brother, younger sister + parents) in the same comany housing.

Due to some circumstances she´s forced to become Ryoki´s slave and has to do whatever he says. She hates it and she is still afraid of Ryoki, but she has to follow his orders (in order to protect her sister .... *won´t tell you what this is about, read it yourself! XD*)
Anyway ... during all that commotion a dear childhood friend of Hatsumi suddenly appears again and resuces her from Ryoki - just like when they were kids. His name is Azusa.
Hatsumi is so happy to see him again and falls in love with him.
But Azusa came back with only one thing in mind and that is to .................... Ryoki gets to know about his plans and tries to protect Hatsumi (in his very own and ... special way XDD *ahem*), but Hatsumi has only eyes for Azusa and is still afraid of Ryoki ... or .. rather she hates him for making her his slave XD ....
Then there´s still Hatsumi´s older brother who tries to protect his sister against both: Azusa and Ryoki XD .... but is this just brotherly love??!!

Well, as you can see there are more or less 3 boys and one girl (so we don´t only have a Tsukasa and Rui this time ;P ....).
Ryoki really reminds you of Tsukasa several times! For me it´s really like that: There are several parts I love about him although there are at least as much parts I hate! It was the same with Tsukasa back then (^^;) ....
Hatsumi isn´t really like Tsukushi. She´s too afraid to speak up against Ryoki (Tsukushi would never keep silent) - but their "relationship" is pretty similar to Tsukushi´s and Tsukasa´s! They have similar problems as well.



There are 12 volumes in total. You can see all of the covers above.
I can´t tell you if I loved the end or not, because if you know who I was rooting for in Hana Yori Dango you would know immediatley how this one ends if I say something ^^; ..... so I keep silent.
Just one thing: A lot of people were disappointed (me too) because the manga ends rather quickly! You have the feeling that the end was rushed by the mangaka ... it´s a bit sad, because this series deserves more love - not just 12 volumes, but more like 15 or 20 volumes!
Apart from that I can really recommend this to you! ... not only if you´re a Hana Yori Dango fan! (^____~)b

But I have to warn you: Unlike Hana Yori Dango we get to see a LOT of physical contact between the characters (which I loved because it brings out Ryoki´s character just perfectly!!!! (*__*) ...), but if you´re offended by stuff like this, you might not want to read this manga (^^;) ....
Here´s an example of what I´m talking about (it even gets a BIT more extrem than that - but don´t worry it´s a normal shoujo manga, no hentai at all XD):




One thing left to say: There´s also a novel with an alternative ending (because depending for which couple you´re cheering, you might not like the end), but I haven´t read it yet.
Interested? You can download the manga here (only up to vol. 10) or @ free_manga (here you´ll also get the novel).



Okay, next. I want to recommend (well sort of) a jdrama I just started (!) to watch. Somehow I fell in love with it right away. I guess it´s stupid to recommend s.th. you haven´t watched to the end yet, but ... well I´ll just tell you a bit about it and then you can decide for yourself if it sounds worth watching or not, k? (^__^;)
I´m talking about another Kimura Takuya drama: Engine.
Yumi-chan recommended this drama to me over a year ago and somehow I was ignoring it .... *lol* .. but I´m glad that I´m finally watching it now (^-^;)



It´s about Jiro (Kimura Takuya), a young formula 1 racer. The drama starts somewhere outside of Japan. (They all talk English XD)
Jiro is racing against s.b. else and they get into a fight. Jiro is fired. He can´t get a job overseas anymore and so he returns to Japan.
At first I thought this is only about racing and formula 1 - I´m soooooooo not interested, but luckily it´s not!
Anyway Jiro returns to Japan and here the story begins.



Meanwhile we get to see a (at first sight totally unrelated) small orphanage. One of the persons working there is ... YAH RIGHT!!! Koyuki (^____^')
I was all KYAH! when I saw her, although her role here is QUITE different from Kimi wa petto or Ikebukuro West Gate Park. She´s a rather clumsy and helpless educator.



This is Shuhei. He´s just coming to the orphanage. He was again abandoned by his foster parents ...



Random: German thing MITSUKETA! XD ... *ahem* sorry! ;P



While the adults are discussing things in the orphanage, Shuhei escapes XD ...
He needs money for the train and looks for an adult he can fool with a lie to get money.



That´s when he runs into Jiro (^________^'') .... but Jiro totally HATES kids and isn´t fooled by the little boy.
Shuhei won´t give up and follows Jiro ... who is pretty pissed XD



Meanwhile Koyuki and the rest is spazzing because they´re worried about Shuhei. They start to search for him ....



.... whereas Shuhei-kun is getting on Jiro´s nerves XDDDDDDDDD
Shuhei fools him and tries to run away with some money. Jiro runs after him and it looks like he´s abusing that kid! XDDD ahaha~
2 women from the orphanage come and finally find Shuhei-kun ... who is abused(?) by a strange looking man (aka Jiro)??!!!



While Koyuki is flipping out, the other woman stays calm, hits Jiro and says not to worry, cuz he´s just HER LITTLE STUPID BRO!!
Hohoho~



Jiro is NOT amused XD ... is he happy to see his sister again?! XD
Well, anyway they all return to the orphanage togehter. Jiro is a bit afraid of his father:



His father was always against Jiro becoming a racer, so they lost contact 5 years ago ... but now that Jiro has lost his job, he wants to live at home for a while - he didn´t know that his father turned their home into an orphanage while he was away ....
... and Jiro hates kids XD ....
Anyway there is one condition for EVERYONE who wants to stay: They have to eat their meals together. So Jiro has to sit down and eat together with ALL THOSE kids! ;P
Talking about the kids ... Koyuki and Kimura are by FAR not the only ones you will recognize/know in this drama ... here we goooooo! ^-^:



NODAMEEEE~ (Ueno Juri) - her role here is QUITE different from the one in Nodame Cantabile.
She usually never smiles and is very introverted. Her parents left her while she was away at a school trip (because they had high debts ... or that´s the story at least).



Toda Erikaaaaaaaa~ (^______________^') Gawd, I didn´t expect to see her again. YAY!!
She´s also a kid who´s living in the orphanage.



Errrm ... yeah and .... Jiro really doesn´t like kids ... so THIS kind of expression .. you will get to see it quite often XD *lolZ*



Well, he just returned to Japan, but he´s trying to get a job at his old racing team.



Someone gives him a warm welcoming: SEEEENPAAAI (^______^)
It´s Yumaaaa-chan *spazzes* (*____*)
Most of you might know him thanks to Hanakimi, but I´m his fan for much longer ^^; ... I think I first discovered him in Ace wo nerae and then watched tons of (sports) dramas with him ^-^V
Yay!!!! ... Wow, quite a lot of familiar faces in this drama, nee? ^^



Anyway Jiro begs his old coach to let him be a racer again, but his coach says no ...



Back at the orphanage: There´s a dispute between the new boy (Shuhei) and his roommate.
Jiro doesn´t bother, he just wants his money back XD .... btw. he always ignores what´s going on in the orphanage, it´s really quite funny! XD



Well ... his father allows Jiro to stay, but he must earn his food .... so he becomes the bus driver for the kids XD .. he has to take them to school // kindergarten // whatever XD ...
He´s not really enthusiastic about this ;P



She´s also part of the orphanage. She cooks the food (XD yesh very important!)
It´s Takashima Reiko (Kekkon dekinai otoko).



Oh, and another familiar face: Sakai Masato (Himitsu no Hanazono).
He´s also part of the orphanage :) An educator just like Koyuki, but much more experienced XD



And a random side note: Kimura´s "boss" from HERO! XD -> Kadono Takuzo.

Well, how does this jdrama sound?? (^-^')



Attention, attention. Alert, alert! Random fangirling ahead!!! Please run away as fast as possible! Alert, alert!!

Ooookay .... this is about Bleach (episode 110) - but there are no spoilers, so if you want to you can have a look at it ;P
Usually I´m more a fan of Ichigo, Renji or Hitsugaya, but HOW CAN I IGNORE THIS "$%"$%"$"§???!!!!!



Ishida ... don´t just suddenly unbotton your shirt!!! (*___*) _{aka: do it more often pleashe!!}



HOLY COW! (*____*) ................



... he is one hot guy, don´t just randomly unbutton your shirt without a warning in the middle of the night!!!! _*drools*



And why do you have such a hot father? STOP IT!

[/random fangirling] _{sorry ^^;}


Okay ... that was long _again.
Hope you survived? (^^;)
Bye-cha!