Natalie > Recent Status Updates

Glad to see Crowley is still an irresponsible headmaster of a school as ever. Although I love this franchise, I wonder how this guy managed to make himself in charge of an entire magical academy of students.

Unlike the mobile game where the MC is mostly there to view the story as it progresses, the main character here is more interactive with the world and it's so nice to see.

Except for the end of chapter two. The anime flow definitely follows the manga.

Going over the first chapter, it seems to be that each chapter will roughly reflect one episode of the anime. I do like the manga creating differences to make it unique from the mobile game. I'm only concerned about character portrayal because when Riddle caught Grim in the game, he didn't portray having such a short temper as he does here. We'll see how it goes later in the manga.

Even though it was published after the manga, this book seems to take more after the mobile game.

Oh man, shit’s getting real here.

I'm not too familar with Chinese or Buddhism traditions when it comes to the dead and so it seems like these hungry ghosts cannot be satisfied with food but with blood instead. How does that work? I thought the whole point of them having festivals and offerings were to appease the ghosts.

Not gonna lie, the concept of hungry ghosts is new to me. But I'm guessing it's safe to assume they're different from your generic ghosts.

Not gonna lie, the first chapter caught me off guard. It just bulldozed me right into it. Buckle up, we're in for a ride!

Pip is so fascinating. He goes back and forth between having some good moments and also bad decision making. Also, the number of times I'm seeing the words 'great expectations' is nearly astronomical. I should have made a drinking game out of it.

So Pip has just been informed of his new fortune, and he is already behaving 'superior' to his friends. This is going to go well.

Was a little nervous going into this but the audiobook is helping. I'm liking it so far.

I finally made it. Oof, that was tough to get through. And I listened to the audiobook too. My thoughts are all over the place on this one.

This is a struggle to get through. This book has managed to have a lot to say and also be about nothing. How do you do that?!?!?!

I kinda like this so far. I'm itching to see where it goes from here.

The heist went way too quickly than I would have liked. We'll see where it goes from here.

Finished Part I and starting Part II. Took longer than expected to get to the heist.

So I've taken my time with this as I have both the animated film and the Jackson films to go back and look at. This is one of those rare instances where I like the movie more than the book.

These last few scenes with Danzo are very interesting. We see a little bit of how his mind works and how we uses people as a means to achieve his goals. The latest scene between him and Itachi is a scene that I wished was in the anime. It's creepy and it reminds the readers that Itachi is still an 11 year old boy, despite the fact that he is a genius.

I understand Itachi's goal here but him craving power like this seems a bit out of character for him, especially at this age. Not sure how I feel about it.

I'm gonna on a limb here and say Rin is from Speer. Maybe a descendent or distant relative of some sorts and not necessarily a direct member like Altan. I'm also curious to see if the true Speer culture will be revealed instead of the assumed information the rest of the citizens believe to be true about Speer.

The entire first chapter is interesting to me as we get to see some moments from certain characters that reveal more about their personalities than what we've seen. The scene with Itachi's parents discussing his progress in school is interesting because what they say almost contradicts on what the manga and anime have shown us. We also see some scenes with Danzo as well. Pretty cool.

I really like this teaching method that's being presented here. For every question Rin asks, she is instructed to do her own research and form her own conclusions rather than being told the answer. It's a journey of self-discovery while obtaining the knowledge she is looking for.

What I always loved about this character is his moral code. It interesting to see his roots and how he becomes the person he is. But I have to say that him as a kid who's not a Genin yet, he's a little too overpowered.

Ever since I started reading as a kid, I've always liked teacher characters who are unusual or the grumpy, idle teachers who seem to do nothing productive. This teacher that no one seems to take seriously sounds awesome. Because you know he's a secret badass.

So while it's taking a while for the story to get started, I do love the world building that Tolkien provides. The prose in this book is very content and peaceful when we start getting into Frodo's journey of leaving the Shire. It's like the book is not in any rush to get going and it's not a bad thing.