Having a night to myself while my girlfriend is making another cake (to be posted after the party that it's to be presented at), I decided to do a bit of everything that I haven't had time to do lately.

-I played a bit of CoD4, which was ended prematurely due to a shitty connection (damn you Bellsouth!).
-I put some time into Brawl, practicing with Peach, Lucas, and Wolf so I don't get ground into powder at the next party I go to.
-I studied a bit of grammar for my upcoming grammar exam, only to find that the emails that had the websites to study from were AWOL (they were eventually found).
-I did some more research for my H-Game panel for Yasumicon.
-I played MGS through the whole PAL card ordeal. I left that for the next time I pop on.

By the time I turned off my PS3, it was about 3 in the morning, so I decide to go to sleep. After 20 minutes, of tossing and turning, I decided to read the last 3 volumes of Ai Yori Aoshi that were on loan to me.

For those that don't know, Ai Yori Aoshi is about a college student named Kaoru Hanabishi, who is reunited with his fiance, Aoi Sakuraba after years of separation. The point of contention is that he has run away and abandoned the family that had arranged the marriage between them.

Imagine a traditional Japanese version of Love Hina and you'll have a good handle on the story and how it follows. It has a zany group of females that all fall in love with one lovable goofball that enters their lives in strange ways. Unlike Love Hina, the main protagonist is not an incapable lout and does not waver in his resolve for the woman he ends up with. However, it also lacks in comedic value, since there is little to laugh at. Much like Love Hina, there are mistimed entrances and miscommunication abound, however every body plays nice and apologizes and simply blushes away. So if you want a less zany Harem series with more blushes than nose bleeds, Ai Yori Aoshi might be an interesting diversion.

Any way, so I read the last 3 volumes and when I got to the end, I wasn't pleased. I mean, it was a happy ending and everything worked out in the end, but I felt a little ripped off. Perhaps it's my patience with the genre getting shorter and shorter with every derivative show I watch, however, this time it was more to do with the manga proper. Somehow, it was even more predictable than the average Harem show. You KNOW who he's going to end up with in the first volume, so I suppose that sucked the enjoyment of the eventual happy ending.

Perhaps that's why I liked Ichigo 100% percent so much. While the show was in the same format as any old Harem series with the same type of annoying loser main character, you really didn't know who he was gonna end up with until literally the last volume. This was also one of the few things that was interesting about Shuffle.

Anyway, as my girlfriend is still working on cake tonight, I'll try to finish MGS and do a quick write up on it after playing it for the first time in ages, then onto MGS2!