S to M no Sekai
Dec. 25th, 2003 12:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaHalf-day work today, bought more swag afterward. *g* I imagine I'll put up something from the Tak Matsumoto aka Mr. Gibson Signature outta B'z album, though; luffly instrumentals, all chinoiserie - what, Engrish isn't enough? - and Hendrix covers. It turns out the thing's an enhanced album, watching Tak fretwank while drowning in showers of sakura petals put me into a trance. Man, I feel sorry for the poor sod who obviously had his CD collection stolen, or there's no way this schtuff ends up immaculate in a Mont Royal furuhonya at 11$ a pop. ^^; Got a Brian May solo album for the S.U. as well, to complete the theme. And a Namie album (from the same CD collection, I posit), and Astor Piazzolla Remixed, because there can never be too much tangotronica. Dammit.
And some cute fitted zip-up tops from Kokawaii that make me look like I stepped out of Bleach when I wear them over my cargo pants with many pockets and buckles of Unclear Purpose**, and random Christmassy items of food and booze for the family. Goldschlager! Raspberry creme logs! Mmkay enough about my shopping, it's getting silly. :P Will talk about manga instead, upon which I blog a link:
Saitou Chiho Romance Symphony (S to M no Sekai)
For my own convenience and yours, because for once one of Re-Miel's scripts is webhosted! Daishokku! He's not got vol.2, though, unless he's caved on the not-buying-manga thing; and vol.2 is oodles better than vol.1, if only because it's all about Gilles de Rais. XD (I howled in vol.1 when Sauveur was all like, "The name rings a bell..." だめよ、ソヴュール君、特に美少年にとって危ないところ… But he remembered eventually, as well he should. See, kids, this is why history class is important: you never know when the universe will pull a Fushigi Yuugi on you. Constant vigilance!)
Now when you think about it, Gilles de Rais is the sort of character that's hard to pull off in shoujo manga, not so much because of the obvious reasons but because a shoujo mangaka wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to save him. ...Well, not just shoujo mangaka, obviously. Poor Thing Tortured By His Mystic Catholic Angst That Carries In Itself The Seeds Of Dark Blasphemy etc. springs from Western commentators, though I'd still hate to see what Higuri Yuu would make of it. XD;; I'm still chewing over the Saitou-Ikuhara take, and will probably have a conclusion at hand by the time I get around to posting something on Shioul. The tentative impression is that the sentimentalist rewrite is at least carried out effectively; which is the manga itself in a nutshell. It's shoujo fluff with time travel and useless heroine always in some sort of sexual danger (Sekai is not nearly as inherently cool as Utena, even if she apparently is Joan of Arc's long lost Japanese twin), but the dosage is aimed unerringly at the Jungian heterosexual female hindbrain, damn them. Y'know, like how the very few of us with Pure Hearts escape SKU without finding Akio sexy, and the rest of us end up wanting to take a bath afterward.
Also, it's really obvious that Everything We Know Is Wrong, and massive mind-breaking plot twists will come around the bend when they are least expected. ...Do me a favour, You-In-The-Collective, and go read it on the sole basis that it's by the creators of Utena, okay? Don't make me haul out the heavy artillery of There's Canon Ghei Innit. *g*
(And for that matter, I can't help but picture Ikuhara-sensei lounging about in the Californian sun thinking, "Why just have canon ghei when you can have bishounen songbirds?" D00d, I die. Cannot wait for the damned thing to be animated.)
** Not really true, as I've figured out most of them. There's snap things meant to take in the slack in the legs in so the bottoms won't get caught in the gears when one bikes, for instance, or at least that's what they're good for. The strap around the leg still baffles me, though.
And some cute fitted zip-up tops from Kokawaii that make me look like I stepped out of Bleach when I wear them over my cargo pants with many pockets and buckles of Unclear Purpose**, and random Christmassy items of food and booze for the family. Goldschlager! Raspberry creme logs! Mmkay enough about my shopping, it's getting silly. :P Will talk about manga instead, upon which I blog a link:
Saitou Chiho Romance Symphony (S to M no Sekai)
For my own convenience and yours, because for once one of Re-Miel's scripts is webhosted! Daishokku! He's not got vol.2, though, unless he's caved on the not-buying-manga thing; and vol.2 is oodles better than vol.1, if only because it's all about Gilles de Rais. XD (I howled in vol.1 when Sauveur was all like, "The name rings a bell..." だめよ、ソヴュール君、特に美少年にとって危ないところ… But he remembered eventually, as well he should. See, kids, this is why history class is important: you never know when the universe will pull a Fushigi Yuugi on you. Constant vigilance!)
Now when you think about it, Gilles de Rais is the sort of character that's hard to pull off in shoujo manga, not so much because of the obvious reasons but because a shoujo mangaka wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to save him. ...Well, not just shoujo mangaka, obviously. Poor Thing Tortured By His Mystic Catholic Angst That Carries In Itself The Seeds Of Dark Blasphemy etc. springs from Western commentators, though I'd still hate to see what Higuri Yuu would make of it. XD;; I'm still chewing over the Saitou-Ikuhara take, and will probably have a conclusion at hand by the time I get around to posting something on Shioul. The tentative impression is that the sentimentalist rewrite is at least carried out effectively; which is the manga itself in a nutshell. It's shoujo fluff with time travel and useless heroine always in some sort of sexual danger (Sekai is not nearly as inherently cool as Utena, even if she apparently is Joan of Arc's long lost Japanese twin), but the dosage is aimed unerringly at the Jungian heterosexual female hindbrain, damn them. Y'know, like how the very few of us with Pure Hearts escape SKU without finding Akio sexy, and the rest of us end up wanting to take a bath afterward.
Also, it's really obvious that Everything We Know Is Wrong, and massive mind-breaking plot twists will come around the bend when they are least expected. ...Do me a favour, You-In-The-Collective, and go read it on the sole basis that it's by the creators of Utena, okay? Don't make me haul out the heavy artillery of There's Canon Ghei Innit. *g*
(And for that matter, I can't help but picture Ikuhara-sensei lounging about in the Californian sun thinking, "Why just have canon ghei when you can have bishounen songbirds?" D00d, I die. Cannot wait for the damned thing to be animated.)
** Not really true, as I've figured out most of them. There's snap things meant to take in the slack in the legs in so the bottoms won't get caught in the gears when one bikes, for instance, or at least that's what they're good for. The strap around the leg still baffles me, though.
