Japanese Pop Star Drunk in Park

Whoa, a member of the hugely popular Japanese boyband, SMAP, has been arrested for being drunk and naked in a park near the Roppongi district.

Neighbours called in the police after they discovered Tsuyoshi Kusanagi was being rowdy and he was taken into custody soon after.

When I googled his name to see how he look like, I was very surprised to see that it was this guy below:




He acted in several popular Japanese TV dramas when I was in secondary school and I enjoyed watching him in those shows. He projected such a squeaky clean image that it was hard to reconcile with the scandal that has tarnished his image beyond repair.

Reports stated that several commercials starring him were dropped and brands like Toyota also dropped him as their ambassador.

Now the public are waiting to see if he would be charged with public indecency despite that he's a big star in Japan. Big star or not, that kind of behaviour is simply not acceptable in Japan. If it happens in the West, then he would probably be let off with a warning but he wasn't.

Stars these days are in the news for all the wrong reasons and no wonder they get so much flak. Anyway I rarely watch TV shows these days. Animes are my obsession and so do mangas. These mediums carry no real human images, only drawings so I guess I'm pretty weird.

=D

Jackie Chan Insults Singapore

The latest hoo-haa about movie star Jackie Chan has landed him in hot soup. His mouth, known for spouting off nonsense, has found its latest target in a tiny country, Singapore.

It was reported that he said that Singaporeans have no self-respect and even mocked fun of its legal law. Despite that, the accuracy of the report is yet to be determined as it's published in a tabloid paper in Singapore, the Shin Min Daily News. That paper is known for publishing rubbish sometimes. Once it even claimed that Ayumi Hamasaki had contracted Aids even though that rumour was false.

Nonetheless, the Jackie Chan fiasco has spread over to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Established papers like New York Times and The Wall Street Journal carried reports of his rude comments on the internet as well as on print.

He alleged that the Chinese people doesn't know how to handle liberty and hence needs the government to step in to control the people. Many Chinese are still angry at him and a group was even set up in Facebook to exile Jackie to North Korea, though it was mainly a tongue-in-cheek reaction to his comments.

In any case, I won't be watching his movies anymore since he's obviously a star with wrong morals and thinking. If he ever comes to Singapore, we had better be sure to quarantine him so that he won't start infect other people with his thoughts. Muawahahaha!

Manga Read: Bleach [Update]

As far as my Bleach reading goes, I am still in the middle of the manga but since my previous post, I have advanced to chapter 245.

Slowly I am getting closer to reaching the latest arc and its chapters. Besides, the latest chapter has just been released, bringing the total chapters to 352. Since this manga is a weekly release, the next due day is this coming Wednesday. So if I can manage to reach the latest chapters before Wednesday, I will be at the most up-to-date arc and its plot.

So far, I have completed the Soul Society arc and now I'm reading the Arrancar arc. This arc follows the betrayal of Aizen and his gang, which happened in the Soul Society arc. Aizen intends to build his own army of arrancars to invade and destroy the Soul Society, a mission which he failed to carry out in the previous arc due to Ichigo's interference.

As usual, the plot is engaging and many fighting scenes are included, though now there seems to be more focus on one of the side characters, Inoue Orihime. She is being targeted by Aizen for her special ability to reverse time and thus seems to be able to heal any sort of injury. Now it's up to Ichigo, Uryuu and Sado to save her from Aizen's clutches.

There is also a new character I find very cool, Ulquiorra Cifer. A picture of him is shown below:





I believe this is the anime version of Ulquiorra. By the way, I must admit that I am still unable to pronounce his name correctly. The spelling alone took me 2 days to get it right. Now I must source for the sound of his name. It's like a tongue twister. Meh...

Nonetheless, he still looks very cool and to date, I prefer him more than any other espadas. The one espada that I dislike a lot is Grimmjow. I think he's an arrogant and insolent espada. He always want to do things his own way. He even dared to disobey orders and start fights with Ichigo and gang. His picture is depicted as below:





He looks like he is in need of a nasty beating, eh? Heehee....

As for the Soul Society side, I am starting to like Byakuya and Toushirou more. Byakuya's love and concern for his adopted sister, Rukia, is very emotional and touching. It's hard not to like him after all he has done for her. He carries a serious on his face at all times, just like the picture below:





Toushirou is very cute but is also very stern for a boy. However his concern for Hinamori is rather discernable and this makes him more enduring. His relationship with his vice-captain, Rangiku, is rather strong and she is willing to turn against her childhood friend, Gin, to fight alongside with Toushirou. See how cool Toushirou poses below:





So now I'm off to continue my arrancar arc and I'm sure Ichigo will emerge victorious.