Omg, I've been waiting for this drama to come out since I heard about it. 1) I absolutely love Miura Haruma, since his "14 Sai no Haha" days, and 2) it sounds funny. And you know what, it is! It's freaking hilarious! XD This is definitely going to be a fave drama of mine, it's just such a freaking riot. Miura's absolutely hilarious in this, but the bonus is definitely the shy and demure character Shirota Yuu plays. XD

Roughly, Samurai High School is about a Mochizuki Kotaro (Miura Haruma), a not very manly  (and rather silly) high school student that discovers one days that he's descendant of a famous samurai. Ever since, he is possesed by that samurai's spirit every time he faces danger.


Seriously, people need to check this out. It's so priceless. Just epic failzy lolz. XD It will make your day in its sheer adorable ridiculousness.

Um...thanks to lacrymosa_moon for letting me know that it's the Anni of UBV. I didn't even realize it...has it been that long? O_O Oh my god, I feel horrible now...urgh. I can't believe this. It's been a year and I've only completed HALF a season!? =_= I'm unbearably upset at myself. But then, Infection took a year, too, and it's not done yet...

Urgh. But yeah, I'm gonna go post ep 12 tonight when I get home...it's not that long, or eventful, but maybe you guys will like it? Character development~

Yay~! Jia is so happy and pissed, but that's because of SM's stupidity which I will comment on properly after I've reread that damn contract like 20 times. I finally got all the chapters of UBV posted on ubv_the_seriesright now. ^^ I've reorganized the episodes, and right now we are sitting at 11 eps, all of them are posted. I'm pretty sure that UBV's episode list has now been officially bumped to 22 till further notice, so yes, we will be have 22 episodes roughly per season like a regular American series. The episodes are now shorter, but hopefully that means I'll post them quicker since they are now shorter.

I just finished up episode 12, "The Good Daughter", last night and should have it up sometime this week. I'm also already going to start working on episode 13, title TBA, which should be out by the end of November, hopefully. ^^ I'm so excited for this. I'm preparing to open the community on November 27, and hopefully by then my opening and ending sequences will be complete. For now, I do have a new and better teaser made. ^^ I'm waiting for HP to come out for Jae clips.




Right now, the comm is still members only, so people should go watch and join. *giddy* I can't wait to release episode 12, and 13 will be even better. We are officially half-way through season one now. *excited* And hopefully everything will go smoothly into season two and UBV won't get "cancelled". Oh, and are people interesting in pimping UBV? 

*dances* Hopefully things will become less stressful for Jia...and god, I need to get working on Infection...but UBV is distracting because it's so damn fun. >_<

Okay, so I have a bit of dilemma right now. I'm kind of done this chapter of UBV. It's past 6,000 words already. However, in my head, it's only "half" done. I've still got a part with Seunghyun, Changmin, Junsu and Jaejoong left, but then the chapter's probably gonna become retardedly huge. So I've decided to separate these two chapters into two different episodes, which means we could get a UBV update in the next couple of days. This also really changes the length of the episodes that I have for UBV. I've currently bumped the episode count to about 16, and hopefully it'll STAY that way, but if I do more "rearranging" and less "scene-cutting" for each episode, we may even reach the regular America TV series season of 22 episodes. I dunno, we'll see what happens.

I kind of love and hate this episode, because generally, there's not much action going on, but a lot of character stuff is explored. I'm disappointed by the lack of action, but with Seunghyun, Junsu and Jaejoong's parts in the next episode, I will be making up for that. In fact, I will try to make sure the next episode is all about the action and violence. Bwuahaha. *coughs*

But yeah, I really need to work out the lengths of my episodes...but that will mean the ep after this one should come out soon...hmm...we'll see how this reworking of length works out for now.

I've been listening to a lot of stuff by Ani DiFranco recently, I've been getting back to my deep love of folk music, and while my favourite song by her is easily "You Had Time", this poem just blows me out of my mind. It's horrible moving and extremely powerful, I find. This is a poem she performed at one of her concerts, and it's regarding 9/11. I seriously wish the world had more artists like her...rather, I just wish the world had more folk music in general. Yeah, Jia likes folk...I'm a very strange little Asian girl.

So~~~I finished the first chapter of Butterfly Effect, and yay~! ^^ I really like how it sounds and the flow. Right now, it has a lot of promise, and I totally hope to work on it more in the future. Writing it is a lot of fun and very different from my typically male-centered stories. This one is all about the girls, I find, and I like it. ^^ Boa is so freaking kickass in it. I can't wait to get to the juicer bits.

Which reminds me that I have to burn birthday DVDs (aka. DBSK stuff) for my friend's birthday tomorrow...need to do that before I head off to bed. But for now, back to writing my religious studies paper. Jesus~~~!

This is by far the most ridiculously adorable commercial...ever...




Er...if people hadn't realized it already, Jia has a thing for rabbits. As in I really love them, okay? *_* They are fantastic...It's like my secret dream to own a farm of frolicking happy fluffy bunnies...I'm not joking. I really want a farm fully of bunnies...

...why are all his kiss scenes so freaking awkward? I mean, he looks like he's giving her CPR here...



Provided...the picture is in a weird position, but still...they have the physical chemistry of water and oil. Completely incompatible. >_>; Bb's hair is also terrible these days that I wanna cry. What happened to the sexy Mirotic Yunho?

God...comparing this kiss to Jae's awesome kiss with Hyojoo...I'm not just biased, right? People can see a difference, no?

Urgh. Sorry. But I hate this drama.

So, due to much boredom and trying to get away from KPop I went and watched some shows in English...like Dexter, How I Met Your Mother, Big Bang Theory, and then out of sheer curiousity, Three Rivers, the medical show on CBS...you know, the one with Daniel Henney. Well, I watched it, and it sucks.

Sorry Henney. He's actually a good actor, and one of the saving graces of this show along with Katherine Moennig, one of my fave, fave, fave actresses. But the plot is horrible. Like really boring. They are trying to make it a weird cross between ER, Grey's, CSI and Law and Order and it just doesn't work. It's really bad, and I'm certain it's gonna get axed. Poor Henney. At least I hope this will mean he gets more work this side of the planet.

Though I don't really like the idea of him playing an "Asian" doctor, even though he is making us Asians look damn good. Nonetheless, the show is still really blah. Maybe I'm just Grey's biased though I'm only watching it for Karev and Yang now...thank god Katherine Heigel finally left...Izzie was like my least favourite character ever.

I should watch more shows in English. Yes, yes. Need to detox from the KPop...

Does anyone have anything to recommend me that's in English? I'm willing to watch anything that's no CSI/24-related...

*_* I like this...it's pretty...and it's not one of those dumb Asian lip on lip kisses...it's an actual kiss! XD *squeels* I wanna kiss with Jae too~! I need to stop harping on that...

That is all.

This entire thing with SM and JaeChunSu is giving me a headache... >_<* I want it all to be over, dammit. I have enough stress with school.



I really should do a black out with all of this and just not check anything more...I really should. I already have enough BS with my school's TAs going on strike. Urgh. I have real life to worry about. =_=; JRock was never this insane...I'm going to go hide in my old fandom. Hyde~~~~save me~~~!

Oh my Ipod...how ironic...*sigh*

I'm going to go drown myself in homework. It's so much less insane than KPop...I swear, if it weren't for these five, I'd give up entirely on the community. Japan, as messed up as they are, is so much more sane.

Temporarily, I'm going to try my best to take myself out of the "fan" in me and look at this entire situation as objectively as I can, in a journalistic manner with all the news that has been made by SM, Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu, as well as the courts. I spent the past two hours examining this whole unfolding situation, and there are many things that I have noticed, adding upon the new information coming from Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu regarding CreBreau. There is a very interesting picture this entire situation has painted that I think people, some people, may not have notice. Let's take a look at both sides.

Firstly, let us rewind a couple of months.

The first thing that prompted this whole thing, especially coming from SM's side, is regarding Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu's involvement with the Chinese cosmetic company, CreBreau. Now, here's the problem with the whole CreBreau fiasco. Endorsements essentially must go through SM; this is true for all artists under whichever label in whichever country. A similar example is Beyonce's endorsements with various cosmetic companys. Their respective companies, in the situation of endorsement, do have control over their artists, and the artist must include the company. The company must also gain money from this exchange, because endorsement means that another company is essentially hiring said artist; this is equivalent to a concert, where various venues will pay respective artists to come and perform--a portion of the revenue will obviously go to the companies.

However, a loophole does exist in this; we have seen this several times in the Western entertainment industry, such as the cases of Britney Spears, Victoria Beckham, Beyonce, etc, who have established their own "brands" (like clothing or perfume). In such cases, the respective individuals are not in a legal bind to give a portion of the revenue to their companies because the business is under their own name, and thus they can use their own name in anyway they desire. Jaejoong, Yoochun, and Junsu probably noticed this loophole as well, which is probably why they also chose to invest in CreBreau in order to not only recieve capital from the CreBreau organization as shareholders, but also being able to endorse the business as their own and not have to give a portion of the revenue to SM. This, obviously, from SM's side is a complicated and irritating matter. I do believe they wanted a portion of the revenue from this venture, obviously, but it also makes sense that involvement with another company with so many of their members could have negative repercussions in a reputational sense.

We can make many speculations why the three members would wish to do this; the very obvious answer is regarding income. Whether or not they are making little or a lot, they do have the legality and rights to pursue private business ventures to acquire more capital. To say they are greedy does not change the situation that they have the right to have further monetary pursuits. However, because the three members have now said they have pulled out of the investment, there is two things we must consider: 1) CreBreau themselves asked them to pull out due to bad press; and 2) they pulled out themselves in order to focus on the contract itself, and to pursue other business ventures at a future date.

The other issue is with the lawsuit and the courts findings. Let's consider the comments made by Yunho and Changmin's "fathers" and "Yunho" and "Changmin" themselves.

Firstly, and this is my opinion, this is terrible PR. I do not believe that such statements have been made by the members; it does not make sense in regards to PR, it just doesn't. SM is essentially trying to victimize Yunho and Changmin, to place the blame on CreBreau and the other three members for creating this scenario. They are trying to counter the bad press they have recieved from this lawsuit, however much too late, and in a way that ultimately wants to create a divide between fans. Why is SM doing this? They are preparing for the worst case scenario, which is the possibility of DBSK breaking up and splitting up the members, which is a possibility at this point, critically thinking about this. They are trying to essentially make sure Yunho and Changmin and their own company does not come to ruin from the catastrophically bad press they have recieved. While Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu will most likely be able to survive on their own as musicians, whether with Avex or another company, as they are the three strongest vocals out of the group, Yunho and Changmin will not fair in the face of music, and as Heading to the Ground's ratings have demonstrated, they may not have enough star power to carry a television program either, especially if the press is bad on the SM end of things. Thus, they are trying to maintain Yunho and Changmin and their side of things, just in case this comes to the worst of the worst, and that both them and SM has a fighting chance in the future.

Furthermore, SM has to prepare for the future; if they don't "attack", so to speak, and essentially everyone congregates on the side of Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu, their reputation as a company would be in jeopardy. This means that they may have less successful singers and etc. in the future auditioning for them, and this would be what could result in the collapse of the organization. Right now, they are trying to put the ball in the three members court--that the future of DBSK depends on their decision, which essentially is true, because SM would not force the disbandment of the group, rather just push back work on future albums and activities.

Secondly, in regards to the comments made about the contract through Mr. Jung and Mr. Shim. While it is quite plausible all of them read the contract and such, and do agree to it, it does not change the legality of the documents themselves. One can sign on to an unlawful contract, but it does not mean that is acceptable in the eyes of the court, nor is it legal. Furthermore, only so many adjustments can be made to a contract if SM allows, because in the end, the contracts can't be cancelled. If a particular item is not acceptable with SM's side, they will most likely not put it through.

While the Korean government and judicial system does have a history of being bias, and I am certain there is bias on the part of the court regarding the boys (in that they favoured them), the legality of the documents have to stand for themselves. Ten year contracts are pretty much unheard of in most everywhere, from larger corporations to cellphone companies, because there is often too many variables that could happen in such a long span of time. The average contracts range from 3 to 5 years, and this is true everywhere. It is understandable that SM has a "life" contract, because they ultimately do invest a lot in their trainees. However, this in itself is a terrible system, because they cannot guarentee success from trainees, and the debut contracts are a way to squeeze all the money spent during that time back. Avex has a similar program, the Avex Academy, from where AAA came from, but it is more of a "school" system, and thus does not face the same situations as SM if artists are not produced.

Finally, to round off this entire case, the most important issue of all: why is SM pushing so hard to control the boys, and all of their artists?

This, I believe, is true to an extent: the results and reprecussions of this lawsuit will be devastating to the KPop industry, more specifically the companies. Why? What Jaejoong, Yoochun and Junsu are doing is not simply a lawsuit, but rather an attempt to form a type of pseudo-union, and what they are doing is essentially a strike. KPop singers don't have unionized rights, and only discuss contractual situations on an individualistic basis. However, if the three members succeed, they will be opening an entire Pandora's box of problems for SM, JYP, YG and any entertainment firm in Korea. They will have essentially created precedence that an artist can sue their own companies due to the invalidities of their contracts (and it is plausible that many of these contracts are similar, if YG's contracts are an indication). They are fighting not only for their own legal rights, but also for a very huge and possibly damaging shift in the Korean entertainment industry. If they set precedence, which I believe they will, one can be guarenteed this is not the last we will hear of such lawsuits.

Thus, it makes perfect sense for SM to try and want to squash this as soon as possible; this could mean many future artists could sue for their rights regarding their contracts, because this has not really happened before--until this particular situation with DBSK. This will inevitably damage many companies; as such, SM is trying to fight for the hegemony of the various companies to stop an pseudo-union from forming between the artists as well as the possibility of the artists "striking" within various companies. SM is basically trying to stop this precedence from happening. This could very well ruin them, from a legal and reputational point of view.

Lastly, some final thoughts.

There is no way for us to know all the facts, unless we look at the documents themselves. We don't have any idea what the three members are making, what the exact details of the contracts are, and how this decision came about. However, I do not believe they did not discuss this with Yunho and Changmin (parents don't really matter in this stuation, I should think). I do not think if the two did not agree, at least to some extent, this would have happened. As such, I don't believe Yunho and Changmin are posing such an ultimatum to them regarding this whole fiasco. The five (or rather, four) live together, which means this is at least a regularly talked about issue. I do believe some things regarding SM does make sense; from a business stand point, it completely makes sense for them to want to counter-sue and such.

However, this entire situation has been handled poorly. In fact, this is the shadow of H.O.T. They had a short contract, and SM learned from that. The same thing happened to S.E.S. Then Shinhwa. SM has a track record it has not realized, and while I believe they do this out of necessity to keep the company alive, the trainee system is what is damaging them. While it is a system that has managed to establish many excellent singers for them, it is not a system that is well organized or profitable like JE's "juniors" system is.

From an outsider's point of view, this could prove to be an interesting situation as we watch it unfold in the legal sphere, especially if this affects Avex's plans for DBSK's end of year Japanese activities. If this becomes a feud between Avex and SM, this could also affect BoA's career as well (though her contract is almost up). However, for the fans, I believe this is a time to simply sit back and watch, because there really is little we can do in the legal sphere. I do hope for a positive conclusion to this entire thing, but considering both sides have a lot to win and a lot to lose, this does have a chance of dragging on for quite a while.

Nonethless, I believe it is important to keep the faith, because, really, if anything these past five years has shown is that DBSK is the most important to DBSK themselves, and they love it far more than the fans ever could and ever will, and thus it is for that which they will fight for or concede to. Here's hoping for the best.

...seriously, I swear, these guys love, or at least are extremely amused by, Perfume...as in the JPop girl group...From all their appearances on various talk shows together, the girls (whom I love) always makes the boys end up in stitches. And then, of course, there's this...which is freaking adorable...


It's just too cute, no? XD Though I have to say I also love their reaction after A~chan revealed she didn't know what a jet-ski was on Music Japan...XD I love Tohofume interaction. The girls are so Anime-like in their cluelessness...I love them.

Oh, and question, does anyone else see the new chapter of Like a Rollin' Stone posted on their friends' page? 'Cause I can't see it...and I dunno why...

A little something for Halloween. ^^ This is one of my favourite episode from Buffy the Vampire Slayer yes, I am a fan...it's one of my fave series. It's an episode that is absolutely amazingly twisted and awesome. In "Hush", the Gentlemen steal the voices of the population of Sunnydale, rendering everyone in the town unable to speak.

Anyways, enjoy bbs~! It's great fun!