Actually this is just an excuse for me to complain again

[petronia]

Mirage of Blaze - わだつみの楊貴妃
Mirage of Blaze - Pearly Gate

Er, "Wadatsumi no Youkihi" if you can't parse that (great title for a book, actually - at first glance one a) understands perfectly what it means** b) has no idea why it would be called that, and thus is obliged to read the bloody thing to find out). Image Album 2, Book 10, i.e. the arc right after these here OAVs. Think of it as a next-episode preview.

The first track is an instrumental in the vein of all the MoB albums including the anime, i.e. reminds me rather of the Rurouni Kenshin Kyoto Arc OST. The second song sounds like... Roxette?... Make no mistake, the dramatic 80s pop-rock quotes are a deliberate aesthetic choice somebody made along the line, possibly because it's the only music capable of carrying lyrics reminiscent of Kuwabara Mizuna's catchphrases without some sort of inward collapse into irony. Insert own essay. Also, stupidly catchy and currently sitting in my 'amp most-played between Julee Cruise and DJ Krush.

I've really been itching to skip to said Book 10, actually. Because it is the next plot arc, and I do want to know What Happens; also because consensus seems to be that Wadatsumi no Youkihi marks the absolute nadir of the characters' - not angst, but wanktardedness. Angst I can take, at worst I sit there feeling sorry for them. It's the wanktardedness that gets me. There aren't a lot of series with parallel or even remotely analogous situations, but... if you've ever watched Berserk? You know how at various points in the anime there's just this overwhelming urge to straight-arm bitchslap Griffith and/or Gatts for being DELIBERATE WANKTARDS? Like that.

Which leads me to wonder how mah homie Golitzinsky would take Mirage of Blaze, given his completely non-sexual non-ironic born-in-wrong-century-on-wrong-continent 主従 thing. He still hates Griffith more than any fictional character he's ever encountered, and for that matter far more than any fictional character deserves. Yeah, I know he'd never watch it, but speculation is a wonderful thing.

** For once I knew what わだつみ means already - due to a song title, surprise surprise.

EDIT -- Okay, my nature compels me to be precise and fair. Griffith was a deliberate wanktard. Gatts lacked Clue, and when the big blunt stick hit him it was a day late and a dollar short to do any good.

Comments

[fable.livejournal.com]

*blinks at your post* *latches on to the one familiar name*

DJ Krush! Just heard him a few days ago, courtesy of the red lotus music blog, and he is just the most excellent thing ever.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

If that's the case we're talking about the same track(s), although I've known of him (and have a bunch of his stuff) for a long time. XD

...Okay, here is the non-beating-around-the-bush version of the post: in the novel, after the whole dragon mirror thing, THEY TOTALLY MAKE OUT ON THE BOAT. Then they go back to shore and have a fight. I am vastly annoyed.

[fable.livejournal.com]

If that's the case we're talking about the same track(s), although I've known of him (and have a bunch of his stuff) for a long time. XD

And you never pimped him? I might've gone my whole life without ever hearing of him, sabina, and how unforgivable would that have been? 0000


..Okay, here is the non-beating-around-the-bush version of the post: in the novel, after the whole dragon mirror thing, THEY TOTALLY MAKE OUT ON THE BOAT. Then they go back to shore and have a fight. I am vastly annoyed.

omg. they make out? why wasn't this in the movie???!!! and have a fight right after?? about WHAT? THEIR KISSING TECHNIQUES? *is annoyed right along with you*

[petronia.livejournal.com]

And you never pimped him?

Er, I can remedy that as soon as I figure out where I have all his tracks stashed. XD (One of those guys it took a while to decide on a genre classification for.)

why wasn't this in the movie???!!!

For the same reason the first two times they made out weren't in the anime either.

and have a fight right after??

Did I mention WANKTARDS? ...It's sort of long and painful and retarded. Takaya accuses Naoe of using him as a substitute for Kagetora, i.e. "you don't really care about me, you're just trying to take advantage". Naoe explains how he feels about Takaya in simple short words, but in a manner that's mixed-messaged and passive-aggressive like whoa (in the book when he says "I love you" it's as if he's talking about some third party he doesn't give a shit about). Takaya says well what am I expected to do about it then. Naoe says nothing is fine, that's what you've always done anyway. Takaya says don't jerk me around. Naoe says well you could always let me fuck you. Then the conversation goes downhill.

[tsutanai.livejournal.com]

”わだつみ"'s Yang Kuei-fei? What?

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Like I said, it almost obliges one to read the bloody thing to find out. XD

[sesame-seed.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Really liked both these samples. <3 Have you finished downloading all the songs yet? Or is streamload still doing 'maintenance'?

And, you must explain to me the relevance of 楊貴妃 when you reach it. XD (I assume it refers to that woman Kagetora loved? Sacrificed so that he could live, for the good of all? Such a mundane explanation, though; surely Kuwabara must be capable of finding some way to twist it around to refer to Kagetora/Takaya/Naoe. *hopeful*)

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Still maintenance, le sigh.

Actually, my bet is that it doesn't have anything to do with the whole Naoe/Kagetora/Minako thing at all (...say, has it ever occurred to you that the raped girlfriend in Zetsuai was named Minako too?). The vast majority of the book titles so far have been plot-related.

[dipping_sauce]

mah homie Golitzinsky

... We need to get Andrew on LJ. It would be funny.

Username samurai_g isn't taken....

[petronia.livejournal.com]

He would never actually post a coherent sentence and you know it. Besides, then he'd realise I talk about him to Internet strangers all the time, and then where will we be.