TOP FIVE MOST POPULAR "SAKURA" IN ANIME

Sakura is a common Female name in Japanese and is widely use for Anime, Manga or Game characters as well. Sakura means "Cherry Blossoms" which is a breed of flower commonly found in Japan. The cherry blossoms are richly symbolic, and have been utilized often in Japanese art, manga, anime, and film, as well as at musical performances for ambient effect. I listed down five of the most notable Anime Characters sharing the same name , "Sakura". Have fun.

TOP FIVE MOST POPULAR "SAKURA" IN ANIME

TOP 5 MOST POPULAR "SAKURA" IN ANIME

"SAKURA MATO"

(Fate/ Stay Night)

A student in her first year of high school, and the sister of Shinji Matō. After Shirō's father Kiritsugu died, Sakura often visited Shirō's home to help him with his daily chores. Though Shinji is from a family of sorcerers, he asserts that she has no knowledge of her family's craft or history. Sakura is outwardly shy and timid, but possesses great inner strength. She has a long standing and obvious crush on Shirō Emiya.While Sakura plays a minor part in the Fate and Unlimited Blade Works routes, she plays a much larger role in the final route, Heaven's Feel. She is revealed to be a powerful magus in her own right as well as Rider's true Master, having used a command spell to give control to Shinji as she had no desire to fight. Her particular brand of magic is unique in that while she cannot command any of the five traditional elements, she can manipulate the very rare Imaginary Numbers.

TOP 4 MOST POPULAR "SAKURA" IN ANIME

"SAKURA KASUGANO"

(Street Fighter)

Even though she is mainly a playable character in Street Fighter Video Games, I think she deserves a spot here since SF creators are Japanese and she has her own Manga too. Sakura is portrayed in the series as a young Japanese schoolgirl who idolizes Ryu, whom she wants to be trained by. Sakura is controlled in the same way as Ryu and Ken, however, her special moves flow differently and are less powerful.

TOP 3 MOST POPULAR "SAKURA" IN ANIME

"SAKURA SHINGUJI"

(Sakura Wars)

As the daughter of Kazuma Shinguji, the hero of the last demon war, and heir to the spiritual power of the Shinguji family, she was summoned to Tokyo by General Yoneda sometime after the formation of the Hanagumi. Struggling to adapt to life in the metropolis after arriving from rural Sendai, she is further troubled by trying to integrate with the already established members of the Flower Division. Often seen as either clumsy or a country yokel by many of the other members when she first arrives, she steadily increases in skill and confidence to become one of the strongest of the group. Other than her open and friendly personality, the main benefits she brings to the group are the Shinguji family's hereditary power to defeat evil and the Reiken-Arataka.

TOP 2 MOST POPULAR "SAKURA" IN ANIME

"SAKURA HARUNO"

(Naruto)

Sakura is a kunoichi affiliated with the village of Konohagakure, and part of Team 7, which consists of herself, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and their sensei, Kakashi Hatake. Sakura initially has an infatuation for Sasuke, praising him at every juncture, and heaping scorn upon the less skilled Naruto. Although Sakura is the most recurring female character in Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto did not originally intend for Sakura to be the heroine of the series.Numerous anime and manga publications have praised and criticized Sakura's character. She was initially noted to be a stereotypical shōnen character, serving as a love interest for the protagonist, and served little purpose in the series initially beyond being comic relief.

THE MOST POPULAR "SAKURA" IN ANIME

"SAKURA KINOMOTO"

(Cardcaptor Sakura)

Sakura is a ten-year-old girl who lives in the town of Tomoeda in Japan, where she attends Tomoeda Elementary School. An extremely energetic and cheerful girl, she is very athletic, being a member of her school's cheerleading squad and excellent at track-and-field activities. Sakura's optimistic and trustworthy character allows her to be friendly with everybody, and the entire series focuses on the friendships she creates with people, whether strangers, loose acquaintances, or rivals. Her personality is a dominating factor in her relationships, especially with Syaoran. While she often comes across as naïve, clumsy, and clueless, Sakura is known for her occasional moments of insight and sensitivity towards the feelings of others. Sakura is so innocent and naive that she fails to recognize Syaoran's feelings for her and unintentionally gets into trouble. Despite this, she retains a determined spirit and attachments to those she cares for. Sakura discovers that she possesses magical powers after accidentally freeing a set of magical cards from the book in which they had been sealed for years. She is then tasked with retrieving those cards in order to avoid an unknown catastrophe from befalling the world.

TOP FIVE GREATEST HITS OF DONNA SUMMER

Hey guys.. it's time for another Top Five list and this time, let's pay tribute to the Queen of Disco Music ~ Donna Summer. Grammy-Award winning, Donna Summer rose to stardom during the Disco Era and she's well known for her notable and catchy Disco fever hits. She was considered as one of the world's leading female singers and was dubbed as the undisputed queen of 70's Disco Boom. Summer was diagnosed with Lung Cancer and died last May 17.

So let's have a Disco Fever , shall we?
TOP FIVE GREATEST HITS OF DONNA SUMMER

TOP 5 GREATEST HIT OF DONNA SUMMER
" ON THE RADIO"

It was released as a single and became, in January 1980, her tenth top ten hit in the U.S. and it was also became her 8th and final consecutive top 5 single. "On the Radio" peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and number nine on the soul chart. I actually prefer this one than the "I Feel Love" because of its ballad tempo. It was written for the soundtrack to the film Foxes and included on Summer's first international compilation album On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2. The song was later covered by different artist including Selena and Jennifer Lopez.

TOP 4 GREATEST HIT OF DONNA SUMMER
" LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY"

Love to Love You baby is one of the first ever disco hits to also be released in an extended form. The full lyrics were somewhat explicit (because of the erotic moans) and at first Summer said she would only record it as a demo to give to someone else. However, Summer's erotic moans and groans impressed Moroder (the song writer) so much that he persuaded her to release it as her own song, and "Love to Love You" became a moderate hit in the Netherlands. Since then, the song became an international Disco smash.

TOP 3 GREATEST HIT OF DONNA SUMMER
" HOT STUFF"

"Hot Stuff" is a hit single released by Donna Summer in 1979 as the first single release from her Bad Girls album through Casablanca Records. Up to that point, Summer had mainly been associated with disco songs but this song also showed significant rock influences including a guitar solo by ex-Doobie Brother and Steely Dan guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter. It is her most popular song, based on the performance on the Billboard Hot 100. "Hot Stuff" won Summer the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance, making her not only the first African-American artist to achieve that feat, but also the first woman to ever win a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance. It is ranked #104 on the updated Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

TOP 2 GREATEST HIT OF DONNA SUMMER
" SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY"

"She Works Hard for the Money" is a 1983 hit single by Donna Summer. It was the first single released from the album of the same name. Summer performed the song on the 1984 Grammy Awards. The live performance was released on the 1994 album Grammy's Greatest Moments Volume I. The song, co-written by the singer, told a story of a woman who "works hard for [her] money". It was based on an actual encounter that Summer had with an exhausted bathroom attendant who was later featured on the album's back cover. Built on a rock-dance fusion, the song became a hit for Summer and one of the singer's signature songs, reaching number one for a three-week stay atop the R&B chart

THE GREATEST HIT OF DONNA SUMMER
"LAST DANCE"

"Last Dance" is a 1978 hit song by singer Donna Summer. The song appeared on the Thank God It's Friday movie soundtrack. Donna Summer has a role in the film Thank God It's Friday as an aspiring singer who brings an instrumental track of "Last Dance" to a disco in hopes the disc jockey will play the track and allow her to sing the song for her fellow patrons: after refusing through most of the film the disc jockey eventually obliges Summer's character and her performance causes a sensation. "Last Dance" won an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song that same year. "Last Dance" was one of the first disco songs to also feature slow tempo parts: it starts off as a ballad; the full-length version on the film soundtrack also has a slow part in the middle.

First Two Commenters

TOP FIVE GREATEST AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 11 PERFORMANCES

You have witnessed the much awaited American Idol Finale awhile ago so I guess, it's time for us to rank five of the greatest performances for this entire season. I must say that this year is way far better than the past 3 seasons. We've got a lot of power vocalists for this season so it's quite hard for me to pick the best five. Anyway, I based this list subjectively , so feel free to raise your opinion or make your own list as well.

TOP FIVE GREATEST AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 11 PERFORMANCES



TOP 5 GREATEST AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 11 PERFORMANCE
"VOLCANO BY PHILLIP PHILLIPS"

I may not be a big fan of P2 but I should praise him for choosing this song. It was perfectly done and it suits his voice so well. It will somehow give you that chill which proves that P2 deserves to be in the Finale. Aside from the "Volcano", " U Got It Bad" is also one of his best performances and is highly commendable as well.

TOP 4 GREATEST AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 11 PERFORMANCE
"PIANO MAN BY COLTON DIXON"

If i am to choose between Colton and Phillip, then I would rather put Colton into the Finals. He's versatile and he turn a song on a version of his own. Honestly, I am not familiar with the song at first but after he sang it wonderfully (not to mention the dramatic background) , it became one of my favorite songs and I never get tired listening to it. The arrangement is simply amazing.

TOP 3 GREATEST AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 11 PERFORMANCE
"WHOLE LOTTA LOVE BY ELISE TESTONE"

Rock is really not the kind of genre I would love to listen with but that is in exception to Elise' version of "Whole Lotta Love". She did an amazing job here. She owned the stage and gave it all here. Adam Lambert performed this song but guess what, i think she did way better than that for me. But Adam ended that song remarkably great though he screamed too much so I still prefer Elise clean version.

TOP 2 GREATEST AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 11 PERFORMANCE
"'WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN"

Actually, If I am to list my Top 30 Performances, 5 or 6 of his performances are probably on the top. He is indeed the greatest Idol ever marking 17 standing ovations on his entire Idol Journey. "When A Man Loves A Woman" is one my favorite performances from him along with "It's A Man's Man's Man's World", "Imagine", and more.

THE GREATEST AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 11 PERFORMANCE
"I AM TELLING YOU I'M NOT GOING"

Jessica never failed to amaze me with her performances. Not because she's also a Filipino but she is undeniably amazing. Her vocals are superb and she 's very versatile as well because she can sing both ballads and upbeat songs. "I Am Telling You I'm not Going" is one of her greatest performances along with "I will always Love You", Sweet Dreams, and Everybody Has a Dream.

So How about which are your favorite Idol Performances for this season? And who do you think will win this game? Jessica or P2?

TOP FIVE GREATEST HAYAO MIYAZAKI'S FILMS

Today I'm going to share my very first top five list after my long break hehe. During my hiatus mode, I was able to get a chance to watch different movies with my siblings. Hayao Miyazaki suddenly became my favorite director and I suddenly became very interested with all of his works. Miyazaki's films often incorporate recurrent themes like humanity's relationship with nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic.What makes his works more interesting is that, there is no actual antagonist or villain on his film because most of them usually turned to the good side or perhaps learned their lessons in the end.
Anyway, listed below are my personal picks. Hope you like it!
TOP FIVE GREATEST HAYAO MIYAZAKI'S FILMS

TOP 5 GREATEST HAYAO MIYAZAKI'S FILM
"HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE"
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 78th Academy Awards in 2006. The film was based on the novel written by Diana Wynne Jones. Wynne Jones's novel allows Miyazaki to combine a plucky young woman and a mother figure into a single character in the heroine, Sophie. She starts out as an 18-year-old hat maker, but then a witch's curse transforms her into a 90-year-old gray haired woman. Sophie is horrified by the change at first. Nevertheless she learns to embrace it as a liberation from anxiety, fear and self-consciousness. The change might be a blessed chance for adventure. The film is very different from Jones's original novel. The plot is similar, but it is flavored with Miyazaki's familiar style and characters, as well as several missing or drastically altered key plot points from the book. The plot is still focused on Sophie and her adventure while cursed with old age; however, the main action of the film's story takes place during a war, and its plot is chiefly concerned with Howl's attempts to avoid fighting in it for pacifist reasons.

TOP 4 GREATEST HAYAO MIYAZAKI'S FILM
"PONYO"
It is Miyazaki's eighth film for Ghibli, and his tenth overall. The plot centers on a goldfish named Ponyo who befriends a five-year-old human boy, Sōsuke, and wants to become a human girl. The film was written, directed, and animated by Hayao Miyazaki, who said his inspiration was the Hans Christian Andersen story, "The Little Mermaid" but his inspiration was more abstract than a story.
It is probably one of the cutest creation from Hayao Miyazaki's collection. The film has won several awards, including the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year.

TOP 3 GREATEST HAYAO MIYAZAKI'S FILM
"MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO"

The film follows the two young daughters of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan. The film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize and the Mainichi Film Award for Best Film in 1988. The Disney version of Totoro features a star-heavy cast, including Dakota and Elle Fanning as Satsuki and Mei, Timothy Daly as Mr. Kusakabe, Pat Carroll as Granny, Lea Salonga as Mrs. Kusakabe, and Frank Welker as Totoro and Catbus. The songs for the new dub retained the same translation as the previous dub, but were sung by Sonya Isaacs. My Neighbor Totoro helped bring Japanese animation into the global spotlight, and set its writer-director Hayao Miyazaki on the road to success. The film's central character, Totoro, is as famous among Japanese children as Winnie-the-Pooh is among British ones.

TOP 2 GREATEST HAYAO MIYAZAKI'S FILM
"PRINCESS MONONOKE"
Princess Mononoke is a period drama set specifically in the late Muromachi period of Japan but with numerous fantastical elements. The story concentrates on involvement of the outsider Ashitaka in the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans of the Iron Town who consume its resources. There can be no clear victory, and the hope is that relationship between humans and nature can be cyclical. It took Miyazaki 16 years to fully develop the story and characters of Princess Mononoke. The film was extremely successful in Japan and with both anime fans and arthouse moviegoers in English-speaking countries. In those countries, critics interpreted the film to be about the environment told in the form of Japanese mythology. Disney's Miramax subsidiary purchased U.S. distribution rights, but wanted to cut the film for American audiences (and for a PG-rating).

THE GREATEST HAYAO MIYAZAKI'S FILM
"SPIRITED AWAY"
The film tells the story of Chihiro Ogino, a sullen ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood, becomes trapped in an alternate reality that is inhabited by spirits and monsters. After her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba, Chihiro takes a job working in Yubaba's bathhouse to find a way to free herself and her parents and escape back to the human world. Spirited Away became the most successful film in Japanese history, grossing over $274 million worldwide. The film overtook Titanic (at the time the top grossing film worldwide) in the Japanese box office to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Bloody Sunday) and is among the top ten in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.

FIRST TWO COMMENTERS
Lawrence
Foongpc

Bluedreamer is Back

After being on a long hiatus mode... I'm finally back from the grave! Yup! That's right! I'm done with my job so I guess I have enough time to bring myself back to my so-called "comfort zone". I missed blogging so bad and I missed you guys so much. I know I've been out from the blogosphere for several months and I hope you guys still remember me... LOL. I have so many things in mind right now, so many Top Five ideas, so many entries I wanted to post.
Thank you so much guys for all the support you have offered to me and my blog. I really appreciate all your comments and visits.
I'm going to start my usual blogging routine by tomorrow. I'll do my best to catch things up. I'll try to change my layout as well and I will definitely update my blogs.
I hope you guys are still with me and thank you for everything.
Have a great day guys and Happy Blogging to all ^_^

Keeping Me Away From Stress

I have 12 more days to go before leaving my company that's why I'm treasuring every moments I spend with my colleagues now. Well, I came up with this decision because I know that there's really something great waiting for me somewhere and I can no longer bear with the transportation and location difficulties especially now that we're moving to a new place.
Anyway, since I already mentioned about this new place, let me tell you how excited I am right now because, to be honest, I haven't seen the place yet. It is somewhere in the province here in Cavite and I've been hearing a lot of wonderful things about it. I don't care about the size or whether it is a 2 story or not. I just don't mind it at all and what matters most to me is the relaxing ambiance that this place has to offer.
Oh well, I desperately need that relaxing experience because I simply can't bear all the stress I'm getting right now. I've been in a "Missing in Action" status here in the blogosphere and I guess it will take me awhile to catch things up. I've been in Hiatus or inactive mode for like 2-4 months now and that really kills me.
I need to fresh things up and I feel like I'm getting too old because the amount of stress I'm getting right now is just too much to be handled alone. Good thing my cousin is inviting me for an outing. She's inviting me for an overnight swimming together with my family. She's recommending me a resort which is way too far from my place and , to be honest, it is very ideal to hit the beach today since the heat is getting me crazy.
Actually, I take a bath up to four times a day recently just to ease that uncomfortable heat feeling. Oh well, I wish we have shallow well pumps here for a greater water supply. I know that this is very self explanatory, but I'm still confused on how shallow well differs from deep well. Is is just about the depths or there is something more than that? We have lots of deep well here and most of them are fresh water so I wonder how shallow well differs from that.
Anyway, Have a great day guys. I promise to be back here very very soon.