Fannishness of Various Stripes
Reading scanlations is the work of the devil. Or something. Reading about 5 chapters gave me a huge headache. Which led to very little of Tree of Heaven but the ten or so minutes I saw of ep 2 were WONDERFUL. Because this drama is only 10 eps, it moooooves. Also, a bit bizarrely, aliterati, the female lead in this looks a bit like a Korean version of you. Which is slightly surreal.
Anyway, the awesomeness continued in ep 2. I love that the dinner/hugging/grins were the break-through. From then on, whatever else is Yoon-Suh’s deal/trauma/mental issues, he sees Hana as the one special person he’ll care for and admit into his world. And oh boy, he’s quite effective at taking care and protecting her, precisely because he is so unconcerned with societal conventions and norms (how Rousseauvian of him). And the thing is, someone as ‘good girl’ as Hana needs someone like him around because otherwise she is defenseless in the wicked world. For example, when they get home after the grinning and she is knocking to get Evil Duo to let them in, of course it’s ineffective. As if the Evil Duo cares if she lives or dies. But Yoon-Suh just picks a rock, hurls it through the window, and when the glass is broken, he is able to open the door. I really really love Lee Wan in this. He has the peculiar nonchalant lack of affect by most things, even like this, down. The way he does it is the way I would use a key. It’s not defiance or rebellion. For him it doesn’t register as odd.
And then, I love it! He rampages through the house (pushing Evil Auntie). He ignores Auntie and Maya fussing at him or trying to stop him, or yelling at him. Very Domyouji of him. And he just gets to the kitchen, opens the fridge and fishes something out as they keep hitting at him that the food there is for the guests, and totally calmly breaks out a pair of chopsticks. And as Hana watches, astounded, he equally calmly gets another pair of chopsticks for her and stretches them out for her to take. Eeeee! He noticed she didn’t eat! *dies* And what I really love is you see a moment where she is startled and then she takes them, breaking the rules at last, and she can’t help but grin back at him, co-conspirators.
And then we get the most awesome little montage, where basically he ends up doing all her chores around the onsen, once again completely nonchalantly, as if it is to be expected (taking the snow plow from her, or when she comes in to tidy a room, it’s already tiny and he walks out, munching). My favorite is when she comes in to scrub the sauna (??) only to find him wet, in the water, scrubbing. And she stretches her hand out for the mop but when she takes it, he yanks her into the water and they are having a splash fight laughing like little kids. It’s awesome. I love that he is capable of fun and teasing (in a very boyish way) and she has fun when she’s with him.
And then they go to visit her father’s grave (on the way there, she asks him why he doesn’t talk, whether he doesn’t like to or what) and there is this awesome bit where he just sits in the snow and she is making snowmen and she asks his help to lift the last snow-ball on top but he won’t, not right away, but when he sees her difficulty, he does, placing his bare hands on her mittens. I said it before, but Lee Wan has incredibly expressive face: you see the exact moment when he realizes that this girl isn’t just someone he is friends with, a quasi-sister, but that he is attracted to her, sees her as a woman.
Whoa. Chemistry. And he starts walking away, and she throws snow at him and there is snow playing and snow fighting and they are both giddy with it and it’s just so beautiful and fun and gorgeous and they are rolling in the snow and I love it. And when they leave, there are two snowmen there: one is Hana and one is ‘Oppa.’ Eeee!
And now the plot thickens as ‘Senpai’ is back to school. He is a former graduate who is some sort of really rich judo person (and is totally HOT!!) and all the girls at school including evil Maya are after him but he likes Hana. And by the look on Yoon-Suh’s face, as he sees Hana excited with the rest of the girls, nothing peaceful is coming but there will be plenty of fun for meeeeee!
Oh, and I am on volume 4 of Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden and things finally started really cookin’! We get holding (Takiko has her hands stuck in a rock, long story, and Rimudo comes up from behind and just holds her up, so her hands would be on a level and more comfy) and we get KISSING! In the middle of a fight, when he is yelling at her to go back to her world and she is yelling at him she hates him. EEEE! And then he just grabs her and kisses her, while her eyes are still open, full of angry tears. And then he tells her he doesn’t like to see her in pain. And stalks off. MMMMM.
And also, a brief comment on Yuki stuff in volume 16 of Fruits Basket. I really like how Yuki is growing, becoming his own person. His forgiveness of Akito isn’t so much a forgiveness as moving on, as taking a responsibility for being the person he is, himself (something Akito is not able to do, the spawn of evil that she is). And I am glad it looks like he will be getting an OTP with Machi. I find school council stuff the most skippable generally (I like Yuki when he interacts with Sohmas or Tohru, but the students, not so much, as he isn’t very dynamic on his own) but I am glad for his sake about Machi. And it totally means a lot that they were arguing and teasing and what not. Yuki sees her as a flesh-and-blood girl (the way Kyo does with Tohru, as he definitely adores her but also teases her or gets exasperated) not a Madonna on a pedestal the way Yuki does with Tohru and the former is what you need to have a happy relationship of equals.
Anyway, the awesomeness continued in ep 2. I love that the dinner/hugging/grins were the break-through. From then on, whatever else is Yoon-Suh’s deal/trauma/mental issues, he sees Hana as the one special person he’ll care for and admit into his world. And oh boy, he’s quite effective at taking care and protecting her, precisely because he is so unconcerned with societal conventions and norms (how Rousseauvian of him). And the thing is, someone as ‘good girl’ as Hana needs someone like him around because otherwise she is defenseless in the wicked world. For example, when they get home after the grinning and she is knocking to get Evil Duo to let them in, of course it’s ineffective. As if the Evil Duo cares if she lives or dies. But Yoon-Suh just picks a rock, hurls it through the window, and when the glass is broken, he is able to open the door. I really really love Lee Wan in this. He has the peculiar nonchalant lack of affect by most things, even like this, down. The way he does it is the way I would use a key. It’s not defiance or rebellion. For him it doesn’t register as odd.
And then, I love it! He rampages through the house (pushing Evil Auntie). He ignores Auntie and Maya fussing at him or trying to stop him, or yelling at him. Very Domyouji of him. And he just gets to the kitchen, opens the fridge and fishes something out as they keep hitting at him that the food there is for the guests, and totally calmly breaks out a pair of chopsticks. And as Hana watches, astounded, he equally calmly gets another pair of chopsticks for her and stretches them out for her to take. Eeeee! He noticed she didn’t eat! *dies* And what I really love is you see a moment where she is startled and then she takes them, breaking the rules at last, and she can’t help but grin back at him, co-conspirators.
And then we get the most awesome little montage, where basically he ends up doing all her chores around the onsen, once again completely nonchalantly, as if it is to be expected (taking the snow plow from her, or when she comes in to tidy a room, it’s already tiny and he walks out, munching). My favorite is when she comes in to scrub the sauna (??) only to find him wet, in the water, scrubbing. And she stretches her hand out for the mop but when she takes it, he yanks her into the water and they are having a splash fight laughing like little kids. It’s awesome. I love that he is capable of fun and teasing (in a very boyish way) and she has fun when she’s with him.
And then they go to visit her father’s grave (on the way there, she asks him why he doesn’t talk, whether he doesn’t like to or what) and there is this awesome bit where he just sits in the snow and she is making snowmen and she asks his help to lift the last snow-ball on top but he won’t, not right away, but when he sees her difficulty, he does, placing his bare hands on her mittens. I said it before, but Lee Wan has incredibly expressive face: you see the exact moment when he realizes that this girl isn’t just someone he is friends with, a quasi-sister, but that he is attracted to her, sees her as a woman.
Whoa. Chemistry. And he starts walking away, and she throws snow at him and there is snow playing and snow fighting and they are both giddy with it and it’s just so beautiful and fun and gorgeous and they are rolling in the snow and I love it. And when they leave, there are two snowmen there: one is Hana and one is ‘Oppa.’ Eeee!
And now the plot thickens as ‘Senpai’ is back to school. He is a former graduate who is some sort of really rich judo person (and is totally HOT!!) and all the girls at school including evil Maya are after him but he likes Hana. And by the look on Yoon-Suh’s face, as he sees Hana excited with the rest of the girls, nothing peaceful is coming but there will be plenty of fun for meeeeee!
Oh, and I am on volume 4 of Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden and things finally started really cookin’! We get holding (Takiko has her hands stuck in a rock, long story, and Rimudo comes up from behind and just holds her up, so her hands would be on a level and more comfy) and we get KISSING! In the middle of a fight, when he is yelling at her to go back to her world and she is yelling at him she hates him. EEEE! And then he just grabs her and kisses her, while her eyes are still open, full of angry tears. And then he tells her he doesn’t like to see her in pain. And stalks off. MMMMM.
And also, a brief comment on Yuki stuff in volume 16 of Fruits Basket. I really like how Yuki is growing, becoming his own person. His forgiveness of Akito isn’t so much a forgiveness as moving on, as taking a responsibility for being the person he is, himself (something Akito is not able to do, the spawn of evil that she is). And I am glad it looks like he will be getting an OTP with Machi. I find school council stuff the most skippable generally (I like Yuki when he interacts with Sohmas or Tohru, but the students, not so much, as he isn’t very dynamic on his own) but I am glad for his sake about Machi. And it totally means a lot that they were arguing and teasing and what not. Yuki sees her as a flesh-and-blood girl (the way Kyo does with Tohru, as he definitely adores her but also teases her or gets exasperated) not a Madonna on a pedestal the way Yuki does with Tohru and the former is what you need to have a happy relationship of equals.