On the Verge of Lunacy

The Mizuho High School men's basketball team was non-existent when Aikawa Kazuhiko transfered from Tendouji High. Mizuho had only four members in the team after the previous coach left when he was attacked by one of the players, Fujiwara Takumi. The team was banned from competing in any tournament for a year as a consequence. Aikawa's persistence gave hope to the four remaining players Fujiwara, Miura Ranmanru, Ishii Tsutomu and Dobashi Kenji. They would have to face opposition from school officials however who are wary of another embarrassing incident. But Aikawa was not just a good player. He was rumored to be a genius and can jump higher than most people. Perhaps there is hope yet to redeem the basketball club's image. Mizuho boys' basketball team would have to overcome personal issues, face confrontations from hurt upperclassmen and most especially endure the ridicule of other teams. Mizuho now has five players but they are inexperienced, undermanne...

Set in Li Heng, this first installment of the Path to Ascendancy series follows the story of Dorin Rav, an ambitious young assassin, who is stumped by an elusive young mage proving to be an annoyance. An earthquake in the Seti Plains exposed a cave and Dorin wanted to be the first to discover its secrets. To his dismay, he learned someone has been lurking about in the shadows. No one has ever beaten him yet until now. He watched for a time, waiting for the person to appear. When he finally got inside the cave he found that it was occupied by a talking corpse and a monkey-looking thing. To Dorin's surprise, the person he was following was just standing behind him. A young Dal Honese mage, Wu, who professed he was the one following Dorin. When they got out of the structure, the mage Wu suddenly disappeared. Since then, Dorin called the mage his rival and vowed he would find and eliminate him.  Li Heng is ruled by a mage known as Protectress who has a cabal of five. Li Heng...

Perhaps the most popular source for Greek and Roman mythology is Edith Hamilton's book. However, Hamilton had covered only the stories that are already popular and did not emphasize the different versions from various sources. EM Berens's Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome offers a wider variety of stories, is more organized and has a lot of material that are not included in Hamilton's. The book included the various myths of Greece and Rome and is organized according to the most important figures to the demi-gods and mortals. The first part is about the creation of the world according to Greeks. The last part is about the Trojan war and its aftermath. Those already familiar with most of the Greek and Roman myths will find a lot of new information in the book not cited in others. If, however, you wish to find analyses of myths, this volume can serve as a starting point for further research. I like this book more than the popular ones because of its...

The Golden Bough was first published in two volumes in 1890. It is a must-read for those interested in comparative mythology and the study of religion. Sir James George Frazer attempted to explain the succession of the priests of Diana in Nemi known as the King of the Wood. The succession is unusual for its violence. The priest who represented Virbius (or Hippolytus) must stand vigilant lest someone attack him and take his place. To understand this problem better, the author delved into the history of magic, examined ritual and mythology and cited various beliefs and practices from across the world that were similar in function. He first examined the principles of magic; tree worship; the different taboos particularly those taboos involving the nobles; religious ceremonies; the fertility cults, etc. The King of the Wood at Nemi was "probably regarded as an incarnation of a tree-spirit/spirit of vegetation and is endowed with the magical powers to make trees bear...

The Mistborn Vin released the power in the Well of Ascension even after the mist spirit that tried to help her and Sazed before had wounded Elend Venture so she would keep the power. The prophecies of the Hero of Ages claimed that a savior would one day find and then give up the power in the Well. Believing this to be the right thing, Vin released the power to save the world from the Deepness. But the prophecies were tampered with. A force named Ruin was trapped in the Well and in its desire to destroy the world it had altered the Terris prophecies so that the Hero will be tricked into releasing it. Elend was saved when Vin gave him a nugget of pure Allomancy which contained the power of Preservation, Ruin's opposite. It turned Elend into a Mistborn. Vin and Elend would have to find clues how to save the world from Ruin. The Lord Ruler had apparently prepared for such an event knowing he would one day be defeated. He had stored food and other supplies in various cities. Their ...

A year after the events in  Mistborn: The Final Empire , what remains of the Lord Ruler's empire is disintegrating. The people have not known any other ruler for centuries. It seems like the freedom from a tyrant is not something everyone wanted after all. Even after Elend Venture ascended to the throne, the Central Dominance is still in chaos. After hearing rumors about the Lord Ruler's stash of atium, two armies lay siege to the capital Luthadel.  One is led by Elend's father, Straff Venture, while the other is led by one of the many kings who declared themselves sovereign in the Western Dominance after the Lord Ruler's death. As if the situation isn't bad already, the Mistborn Vin and her friends are not yet aware that a third army is on its way. What's more, there are rumors that the mist has been attacking people. Vin has grown suspicious of the mists that she considered her ally. Even among her allies, Vin has to be observant too. It seems that ...

High school freshman Daimon Kaito is a genius when it comes to solving puzzles. One day he received a strange device along with an invitation from a person named Minotaur to solve a puzzle in a ruin. He was accompanied by friend Itou Nonoha who, although not as good with puzzles like Kaito, managed to help him in dangerous situations. At the center of the maze, Kaito found a bangle which helped him solve the problem within a short time. The bangle is known as Orpheus which glows whenever Kaito is forced to solve an impossible puzzle. The group behind the life-threatening puzzles is known as POG. Kaito, now a Solver, teams up with fellow puzzle geniuses to solve POG's puzzles and find out the group's purpose in creating such problems. Unknown to Kaito, their high school Root Academy knows about these philosopher's puzzles and is connected to POG. During his adventures, Kaito met new friends who were also good at solving puzzles. Sakanoue Gammon solved puzzle...

This is the first installment of the spin-off of the Angelique series and is based on the Neo Angelique game. Set in Arcadia, monsters called Thanatos appear to torment the lives of people. Only the Purifiers have the ability to fight these creatures but very few of them exist. Angelique's parents were among the victims of the Thanatos when she was a little girl. Because her father was a doctor, she vowed she would continue her father's work. One day a man named Nyx invited Angelique to help him in protecting the world from the Thanatos and to come live with him at the Hidamari Mansion. She also met Rayne whom she nursed back to health secretly at the dormitory. When a Thanatos appeared and attacked the school, Angelique used a power she has not discovered before. She learned that she is the prophesied Queen's Egg, the only female purifier in the world as well as a candidate to be the Queen of Arcadia. She met new friends during her stay with Nyx and Rayne....

There are plenty of adaptations of Oda Nobunaga's life. The themes are usually explorations of Nobunaga's character either as a hero or a villain. Not surprising as Nobunaga's visions and actions can be viewed in many different ways. In Nobunaga the Fool, he has a reputation of being impulsive and brash. Set in two fictional worlds named Eastern and Western planets, Nobunaga the Fool included famous names in world history who battled for peace by controlling lost technology known as sacred treasures. In the Western planet, the heretical Jeanne Kaguya d'Arc saw visions of a savior-king who will put a stop to the endless wars. She and Leonardo da Vinci journeyed to the Eastern planet to find this man. Jeanne possessed a regalia, a powerful amulet that is used to operate a giant war armor. Jeanne met Nobunaga and decided to stay with the member of the Oda clan as Ranmaru. Jeanne needed to be sure that Nobunaga was the man she saw in her visions. Nobunaga howev...

Romance anime usually has a formula and that is why Ore Monogatari!! is like a breath of fresh air. Not only is it told from the point of view of a male protagonist, the lead characters are quite unusual too. Gouda Takeo is the complete opposite of his best friend Sunakawa Makoto. Takeo is a big guy with homely features while Sunakawa is handsome and dreamy. If this was like all the other shoujo romance series, the cold and distant Sunakawa would have been a perfect leading man. The big, burly Takeo however caught the eye of the doll-like Yamato Rinko when he saved her from a groper one day on their way to school. Takeo might not be as good-looking as Sunakawa but he's popular among the men because of his physical prowess and cool character. Rinko fell head over heels over Takeo. But Takeo didn't seem to notice because he was accustomed to being used by girls to get to his best friend. Assuming that Rinko is in love with Sunakawa, Takeo ignored Rinko's advanc...

Princess Yona is the child of the pacifist king of Kouka King Il. She is sheltered from all the troubles of the outside world. Her life seemed perfect until on her sixteenth birthday she witnessed her beloved Su-won murder her father. Su-won claimed that he is a better fit for the title and will rule Kouka like a king should. She was saved by childhood friend and bodyguard Son Hak who took her to the Village of the Wind. The village's patriarch Son Mundok suggested that Yona and Son Hak flee the kingdom and search for the oracle Ik-su. Ik-su tells them of the legend of the four dragons who helped the first king of Kouka unify the kingdom. Yona and Son Hak begin the search for the reincarnated dragons to save the kingdom from Su-won. During their escape, Yona realized that her kingdom was not the paradise she thought it was. Despite her father's vow of nonviolence, people are hungry, afraid and dissatisfied. Yona has always viewed her father as a benevolent ruler ...