Sloggin' away at the neverending anime

[petronia]

Made it through the St.-Rudolph matches. It's not that I don't enjoy it. Of course I do. But if it were something that I was following on TV every week for two-three years it wouldn't make me feel as if I were putting the rest of my (fannish) life on hold. ^^; To be honest, I don't have the stamina for long series. Of anime like Ranma 1/2 or Sailor Moon or Inu Yasha, I've seen only a few episodes if at all. And of story series... literally the only 50-odd episode series I've ever watched from beginning to end is Fushigi Yuugi, and that only the once. Never finished Kenshin, never finished Slayers, never finished Slam Dunk, never finished Get Backers, even. (I'm still compulsively saving a couple of episodes in the mid-40s. XD;;) And the horrific self-discipline it took to get through one run of both Weiss series...

FWIW the only things I've watched on North American TV for the past 4-5 years are award shows, sports and the occasional documentary or movie-of-the-week. The last series I followed consistently was The X-Files... season four. (And about half a season of American Idol, aha.) So I have a huge attention deficit for television in general, and the least distraction sends me running back to the printed page. XD If it's a series I like, I'll breeze through thirty volumes of manga and whine for the continuation.

So why watch TeniPuri? ...Well, because it's sparkly and it's there (thanks, Lux XD), but mostly because the two versions are very different**, and the anime is a lot more ficcable than the manga. In other words, data gathering. XD;;; I mean, obviously I don't have enough ficcage on my plate.

Was reading GB23 - in detail - and got through about a chapter and a half before my eyes gave out. -_-; Ayamine-sensei needs to lay off the skinny pens. I can't differentiate between the foreground and background anymore, jaw-droppingly gorgeous though the toning might be. (Oh, and he knows the kid in Akabane's flashback looks like little Ginji. "It wasn't planned," quoth he, "I drew him like that without thinking. But maybe we'll work it into the story somehow. What with Semimaru and Akabane being connected, which is like a recipe for confusion." Mmm, I do love how the creators know exactly what they're doing ahead of time! XD;;)

**Or my reactions are different. I chugged through the St.-R chapters of the manga on the steam of my virulent hatred for Mizuki, but somehow I can't muster up the h4t3 for his anime incarnation. Ishida Akira's giggling disarms me - that and the hair-twirling. Or maybe it's just that I know how it ends. ^^; Much more is shown of the psychology and family history between Fuji and Yuuta, to the effect that's it's actually rather different from what I'd assumed from the manga. Makes me feel even more sorry for them. ;_; (I have a tendency to identify with the aniki/niisan characters in animanga - for some reason there are very few protective older-sister charas. To me the idea of having a little brother who doesn't want to be one's little brother is the saddest thing ever, and the more so because it's no one's fault.)

Comments

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

I go on marathons, occasionally. Right now I'm at the episode 95 mark and need to summon the stamina to go up to 98, and then I need to raw hunt. I can't really take episodic anime very well. I stopped watching Kenshin post Kyoto arc, though I finished all of Slayers (but slayers isn't that long if you go by seasons.) And I just don't rewatch anime in general. Nowadays I don't watch TV except for DVDs. The last show I got through was the Sopranos.

PoT: Hmm, I had thought that up to the end of Hyoutei the anime was fairly faithful, but perhaps we've been talking about two different things (anime vs. manga warz!!!). And the seiyuu do of course add a lot. BTW, where are you in the manga about?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Well... if you gave a play-by-play summary of the storyline it would indeed be nearly identical. But the detailed shading is different. There are directorial flourishes in "cinematography", the comedic/filler interludes are extended, you get a lot more of the squeaky girls and the reporters (and thus tennis tutorials, of which there's little to none in the manga - it's as if Konomi expects the reader to be a player already >_>), and three-fourths of the flashback sequences are anime-only. If you see the characters being younger and cuter, chances are that's anime. ^^; In three cases so far - Shinji vs. Ryouma, Tezuka vs. Ryouma, Fuji vs. Mizuki - the changes are wide-ranging enough to impact how I would write fanfic. (FTR, S vs. R much more emphasis is placed on Nanjirou's nittouryuu in the anime. T vs. R it's implied in the anime that the match is a strain for Tezuka; in the manga he breezes through it, no hint of medical emergency, and I'm not even sure Ooishi was there. F vs. M much more is shown both of Fuji's explicit caring and Yuuta's latent worry in the anime, and most importantly, in the manga Yuuta *doesn't* find out that Mizuki betrayed his trust, because no one tells him. -_-; Of course no one tells him in the anime either; he overhears, but still.)

Manga-wise I'm a bit into Rokkaku, and wubbing Amane Hikaru. XD

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that's interesting, so the anime here is of the 'good' adaptation sort. Except I don't like the reporters and the squeaky girls.

Yes, Rokkaku is cute. They're just such a WAFFy team with their chibi-cheering squad, bad puns, and exceedingly genki captain. There's a lot of big changes in the anime version of the match against Rokkaku, though. (like who plays whom, plot developments, etc)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a bit too much with the squeaking girls there. >_> Sakuno isn't nearly as annoying in the manga. For one, it's actually not particularly obvious that she has a crush on Ryouma therein; you could make a very good case that she doesn't. (She shows interest in him as a person, of course, but that's because Ryouma is interesting. And I'm biased. XD) She's certainly not as dithering as she is in the anime, and correspondingly Ryouma isn't as much of an insensitive clod toward her. And after a while, as with Akari in HikaGo, she just sort of disappears off the edge of the screen. ^^;;

Okay, here's a strength-related discussion question for you: how do you figure a serious Tezuka vs. Fuji match would play out? ...Not so much who would win, I think we all assume Tezuka would win just because he's that much more insane about it, but how their various techniques and counters would measure up. (I don't wonder about Fuji vs. Ryouma, because if it doesn't end with rain it'll end with Ryouma clocking Fuji with a cricket bat. XD)

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Heh heh. It's just that I don't like that expression on her face; she always is....worried. Even if there is absolutely nothing to be anxious about. It got to the point in the anime that I was mentally urging Sakuno to act more like Tomoko, and stop cringing at everything.

Tezuka vs. Fuji: Okay, Tezuka has Zero-shiki and Tezuka zone, and Fuji has the Cut Serve and the Triple Counters. The problem is that we have never seen Fuji seriously tested in singles. So we've had it written in that Tezuka and Fuji have unreturnable counters, but they can be dealt with by sealing them as to not give the other person an opportunity to get them off, or by hitting them before they hit the ground and slide along it or go backwards. So I assume that both Tezuka and Fuji would find a way to deal with each other's special moves. (I'm avoiding spoilers here on how one might actually deal with Tsubame Gaeshi).

Tezuka Zone is more of a problem. Ryouma dealt with it by switching hands and being unsure of where exactly the ball was going to land, IIRC, but Fuji doesn't have that option. Inui also couldn't defeat Tezuka Zone because he hadn't seen it before. But Fuji has and so he might have already devised a strategy. (BTW, at this point in the manga I'm considering it somewhat probable that Ryouma might beat Fuji, because he's recently been really powered up)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Lessee... you can return Zero-shiki if you can see it coming from the 3mm drop like Inui can (WTF, I always say, but canon spaketh and we must follow -_-;). Higuma Otoshi is for countering a smash, which Tezuka typically doesn't rely on anyway. Hakugei seems to depend on the presence of a light wind (but if that's the case what did Fuji do when he had to change courts in the match against Jirou? He won six in a row then. Once again, no comment). And you tell me Tsubame Gaeshi has a counter. XD;; So that leaves the Vanishing Cut Serve (btw, isn't that also a sword technique something?) and Tezuka Zone. Hmm. *ponders some more*

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, if Inui can do it, certainly Fuji can.

Hakugei: Er.... Fuji controls the wind. He has magical powers.

Tsubame gaeshi: Actually, it's not so much a counter as a method of sealing it, and Fuji eventually finds a way to overcome the seal, but that relies on some other factors too.

Cutserve/Tezuka Zone: No one has of yet managed to counter the Vanishing Cut serve, but people have returned other supposedly unreturnable serves. I figure we'd just hear something like, "Tezuka's superior tennis vision blah blah" and then Tezuka would be able to return it. (So far, who else has a serve that is really unreturnable?)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Ohtori's Scud Serve, right? Didn't they win that match? You'd think I'd remember better. >_<

(Incidentally I do wub it when they do that. It's like in RPG boss fights when you think it's going well, and then the person you're fighting goes "WTF I must not lose, my insanity lends me strength!" and leaves you with 1 HP. -_-;)

Fuji rides the wind! Whotthehell, I figure I'll leave Tezuka Zone alone. It does have metaphoric value. *g*

[worldserpent.livejournal.com]

Ohtori's scud serve, though, is highly flawed because it's constantly hitting the net because Ohtori lacks control.

(Yes, although it works better in sports if it's not a result of desperation but a calculated plan to dismay and discourage the opponent. Rikkai is very good at this. No one in Rikkai would be so overtly rose-petal-animation as to go around saying "be awed by my prowess!!" but they're good at forcing everyone to be awed.)

Tezuka Zone: Yeah, it does exist mostly on a metaphorical level.