Series, various
Sep. 6th, 2006 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaViewfinder (latest chapter): realised that my gripe with the Hong Kong arc isn't Feilong, it's Takaba. When Yamane's ukes go drippy like that it's over in terms of tension, at least until they meet the seme again. Not only that but it's vaguely cheapening - and irritating - to have him being used by Feilong while pining after Asami all this time. I'd find it more interesting if he held up his end.
But I must be in the minority - among people who even like Asami x Takaba, that is. XD
Ouran (latest anime ep): IMO the series coasts on momentum when it's not being on crack, which is odd - it's usually the other way around. But I feel like the backstory eps haven't told me anything surprising. ^^; Take the twins-related eps: if one must be an insufferable little snot it may well peak around age 13-14, to be gradually grown out of (or smacked out of, thank you Haruhi), but that's neither illuminating nor sympathetic, it's just life. XD And I know Kyouya's type maybe too well. Dunno. I think Haruhi's presence is more integral to the setup's success than readily apparent, given that the point of Haruhi is not being flashy.
Though the character that comes off best is Tamaki. After all's said and done etc. You could actually make the argument that Haruhi is freed from the emotional duties of yr typical purehearted shoujo heroine precisely because Tamaki takes on so many of them. XD Also I really adore his seiyuu, I don't know how they cast someone this perfect.
(There's this thing I want to write involving Kyouya and Tamaki but am stuck, for the same reason I was stuck (briefly) on the TezuFuji Brussels postcard thing: I know the topic it revolves around but I'm not sure of the characters' opinions. ...Who was it said Kyouya and Tamaki are what you get if you surgically separated the hemispheres of Imonoyama Nokoru's brain? XD)
Saiunkoku Monogatari (episodes 1-3): started watching this. I could've been ahead of you all but I was lazy. XD Overwhelming impression is "It's not Juuni Kokki, but then again it's not Fushigi Yuugi either." Principally it's less fantastic than the other two, so far no unicorns or phoenixes, the heroine doesn't come from a different world, etc. meaning I have more leisure to compare it to real ancient China and be offended that it's not. Which is unfair, given that what I mean is I keep expecting the politics to be more complex and vicious and unencumbered by shoujo pastels, and for good people to come to bad ends. XD;
I get the feeling the story proper hasn't kicked in, though. And I'm really, really certain that the author of this thing was into Fushigi Yuugi in high school, then at some point sat down with a beer and was like, "........You know what? I could totally do better," and did, which is the sort of endeavour I could get behind.
GetBackers (volume 36): manga shipment came in a week early. As the previous volume dealt with the Miroku this one mostly wraps it for the Fuuchouin. Oh, Fuuchouin clans, why the hell are there so many of you. =_= The interest of the battles themselves have dipped, since they serve - Kenshin-style - as a sort of shortcut to catharsis, with the outcome dependant on some combination of will and right feeling (explicitly as well as thematically, given the nature of the Beltline). Id est what physically happens during a fight is meaningless and you can't judge by it, may as well sum it up in a sentence. :P At least with Fuuchouin you get the pretty named attacks. I have the impression Aoki-sensei has thrown in the towel and is writing wuxia.
(I've always wanted to compile a numbered list of all the named Fuuchouin and Kakei attacks in the series. You do get to see Kazuki's #99th attack ougi, it's a Cocco song.
And, because it's Kazuki, a dramatic moment of unintentional hilarity:
Kazuki's mom: I can only show you this technique once. It's passed down by those who marry into the Fuuchouin clan, secretly, from generation to generation. So you must never mention it to your father.
little!Kazuki:
little!Kazuki: But if it's passed down by those who marry into the Fuuchouin, why are you showing it to me?
Kazuki's mom: ...*sigh*)
I wish Yohan were introduced earlier in the series, actually, instead of being a Big Boss Out Of Nowhere. Though they did a good job of filling his character in as the arc progressed. I especially appreciate how he explicitly, canonically has a Thing(tm) for Kazuki, and then... yeah. Teamwork at its best, guys.
...Is anyone summarizing/spoilering GB now or not at all? Makubex is in the Archive. Who's female. And wants to eat him. Vagina dentata at its best. He's holding her off by making side bets on the fight outcomes.
But I must be in the minority - among people who even like Asami x Takaba, that is. XD
Ouran (latest anime ep): IMO the series coasts on momentum when it's not being on crack, which is odd - it's usually the other way around. But I feel like the backstory eps haven't told me anything surprising. ^^; Take the twins-related eps: if one must be an insufferable little snot it may well peak around age 13-14, to be gradually grown out of (or smacked out of, thank you Haruhi), but that's neither illuminating nor sympathetic, it's just life. XD And I know Kyouya's type maybe too well. Dunno. I think Haruhi's presence is more integral to the setup's success than readily apparent, given that the point of Haruhi is not being flashy.
Though the character that comes off best is Tamaki. After all's said and done etc. You could actually make the argument that Haruhi is freed from the emotional duties of yr typical purehearted shoujo heroine precisely because Tamaki takes on so many of them. XD Also I really adore his seiyuu, I don't know how they cast someone this perfect.
(There's this thing I want to write involving Kyouya and Tamaki but am stuck, for the same reason I was stuck (briefly) on the TezuFuji Brussels postcard thing: I know the topic it revolves around but I'm not sure of the characters' opinions. ...Who was it said Kyouya and Tamaki are what you get if you surgically separated the hemispheres of Imonoyama Nokoru's brain? XD)
Saiunkoku Monogatari (episodes 1-3): started watching this. I could've been ahead of you all but I was lazy. XD Overwhelming impression is "It's not Juuni Kokki, but then again it's not Fushigi Yuugi either." Principally it's less fantastic than the other two, so far no unicorns or phoenixes, the heroine doesn't come from a different world, etc. meaning I have more leisure to compare it to real ancient China and be offended that it's not. Which is unfair, given that what I mean is I keep expecting the politics to be more complex and vicious and unencumbered by shoujo pastels, and for good people to come to bad ends. XD;
I get the feeling the story proper hasn't kicked in, though. And I'm really, really certain that the author of this thing was into Fushigi Yuugi in high school, then at some point sat down with a beer and was like, "........You know what? I could totally do better," and did, which is the sort of endeavour I could get behind.
GetBackers (volume 36): manga shipment came in a week early. As the previous volume dealt with the Miroku this one mostly wraps it for the Fuuchouin. Oh, Fuuchouin clans, why the hell are there so many of you. =_= The interest of the battles themselves have dipped, since they serve - Kenshin-style - as a sort of shortcut to catharsis, with the outcome dependant on some combination of will and right feeling (explicitly as well as thematically, given the nature of the Beltline). Id est what physically happens during a fight is meaningless and you can't judge by it, may as well sum it up in a sentence. :P At least with Fuuchouin you get the pretty named attacks. I have the impression Aoki-sensei has thrown in the towel and is writing wuxia.
(I've always wanted to compile a numbered list of all the named Fuuchouin and Kakei attacks in the series. You do get to see Kazuki's #99th attack ougi, it's a Cocco song.
And, because it's Kazuki, a dramatic moment of unintentional hilarity:
Kazuki's mom: I can only show you this technique once. It's passed down by those who marry into the Fuuchouin clan, secretly, from generation to generation. So you must never mention it to your father.
little!Kazuki:
little!Kazuki: But if it's passed down by those who marry into the Fuuchouin, why are you showing it to me?
Kazuki's mom: ...*sigh*)
I wish Yohan were introduced earlier in the series, actually, instead of being a Big Boss Out Of Nowhere. Though they did a good job of filling his character in as the arc progressed. I especially appreciate how he explicitly, canonically has a Thing(tm) for Kazuki, and then... yeah. Teamwork at its best, guys.
...Is anyone summarizing/spoilering GB now or not at all? Makubex is in the Archive. Who's female. And wants to eat him. Vagina dentata at its best. He's holding her off by making side bets on the fight outcomes.
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Date: 2006-09-06 11:11 pm (UTC)I am currently horrified of having to sit through Yugo the Negotiator episodes 7-12.
...Yugo the Negotiator episodes 7-12 are the Moscow (and, uh, various other places in Russia) arc...
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Date: 2006-09-06 11:22 pm (UTC)a;lksfja;lskjf WHUT.
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Date: 2006-09-06 11:24 pm (UTC)And I'm really, really certain that the author of this thing was into Fushigi Yuugi in high school, then at some point sat down with a beer and was like, "........You know what? I could totally do better," and did, which is the sort of endeavour I could get behind.
That is EXACTLY what I was thinking. XD
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Date: 2006-09-06 11:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2006-09-07 01:06 am (UTC)Who was it said Kyouya and Tamaki are what you get if you surgically separated the hemispheres of Imonoyama Nokoru's brain?
I have no idea, but that person was brilliant. I agree with your opinon of Ouran lacking a certain oomph. (Shall post on this later, but am currently distracted by SHINY DSL!!!!!!!!!)
Am going to watch Saiunkoku monogatari, soon. Since I can't read the novels.
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Date: 2006-09-07 03:15 am (UTC)Please write Kyouya and Tamaki fic!
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Date: 2006-09-07 06:14 am (UTC)... If you do decide to do so I can help? At least with the early volumes?
(Randomly, do we ever get any indication of multiple clans, spilts, hell, even that the Kakei family extends so far as, oh, second cousins? 'Cause we have all these random Fuuchoin popping up and they're all using variants of the same fighting style ... but we have seen four Kakei ever, counting Juubei and Sakura's mom and dad, and they have two completely different fighting styles between them! Which doesn't seem quite right.)
Re Makubex, my approximate thoughts:
1. So THAT'S where he went!
2. You know, I always did suspect that Mugenjou had a central, overarching intelligence/soul ...
3. but I always thought it would be Makubex himself.
4. Possibly I read too much Sandman as an impressionable teen.
5. It would really suck if A & A killed him off.
6. But given they brought back Amon, it's not likely. Seems a shame to reform a major arc-spanning villain, turn him into a minor deity, and then not keep him around.
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Date: 2006-09-07 08:16 am (UTC)Miyano Mamoru is amazing, yes. ^^ When he's acting on stage, he's also really awesome! ^^ And Tamaki = Yagami Light = WIN. XDD
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Date: 2006-09-07 02:12 pm (UTC)hee. I know very little about Ancient China, but the politics seemed really simple and shoujo-like to me, too. They didn't have the complexity of, say, a series like LoGH; there were just the good guys (that you knew would end up winning in the end) and the bad guys - no real shades of gray, no feeling of complex machinations going on behind the scenes. Some of the characters, such as the king, are written as clever, but they don't seem clever to me, because the plots they uncover and the schemes they carry out are either totally obvious or needlessly complicated, and they do really dumb shoujo-like stuff that they never have to face the consequences of.
There was one exception to this, but I don't want to spoil you. Aside from that exception, though, the world created felt rather simple. Which, yes. Is just about what I should expect from a shoujo series, innit? XD;;
I get the feeling the story proper hasn't kicked in, though. And I'm really, really certain that the author of this thing was into Fushigi Yuugi in high school, then at some point sat down with a beer and was like, "........You know what? I could totally do better," and did, which is the sort of endeavour I could get behind.
*diesss* So true. Watched Fushigi Yuugi on breaks while preparing for a huge test, too, most likely. XD
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Date: 2006-09-18 12:59 pm (UTC)*excuses herself to go die laughing* That is strangely...apt.
I agree on the backstory episodes - while they make fantastic fodder, they just haven't been particularly entertaining as a whole, and the progression hasn't been very cohesive. At least not as cohesive as you'd expect of a series that's wrapping up in two more episodes. The Honey-backstory episode worked, maybe because there were healthy doses of crack as well.
My favourite of the recent eps has been 21; it seemed to get the proper mix of DE SERIOUS and the silly and the strange, exuberant metaphors that make the anime such love.
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