I really need to use LJ more...

[davennashi]

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Another Hetalia music vid.
Just to reiterate - it's that anime where each country is anthropomorphasized into a human character (Except poor Iggy/England has a bit of an identity crisis. In the original manga/comic strips, he's only referred to as 'England' and Scotland is mentioned as an older brother, but isn't seen... the anime refers to him as 'Britain' due to some kind of concerns during production... and further still, he's also labelled as the United Kingdom/UK. I think I'll just keep calling him 'Iggy'. It's a nickname pulled from the Japanese word for 'England' - 'Igirisu'.)

In the video, it's order of appearing countries are,
Seychelles, America, Belgium, Ukraine, Canada, England, Camaroon, Egypt, France, Russia, Austria, Italy.

Poor Canada got the short end of the stick in this vid, though. He only one good image... :\

So, besides Hetalia nonsense...

I've been a bit non-social lately. Not really in the mood to talk - with a few exceptions - can't seem to find motivation to do even my leather tooling, and just looking at some of my goals - the cosplays, the steam punk accessory planning (ala the leathers), the stories rumbling inside my head... I just seem to sit back and go, "...what am I doing?" - in the fact that it feels pointless.
I went from gung-ho in October to "bleh. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻" in the span of one month.

Maybe it's just the winter being winter.
I want to hibernate.
Maybe I'm a bear.
...
...is what I would say, if I wasn't such an avid wolf person. Written in name, written in family shield, written in my brain.

Other than the winter blahs, I've been reading a series I picked up - The Parasol Protectorate/Soulless (Gail Carriger). Side note, the novels carry different titles per volume - Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, etc. The manga holds only Soulless, on both volumes. I'm extremely picky with my books. The last book I haven't been able to put down was the Leviathan series (Scott Westerfield). I couldn't put down either series for any length of time, though I've been limiting myself (unsuccessfully on some occasions) to just on the subway rides to/from work (as the commute gets very boring). One thing I'm very picky on, with most books, manga, anime, shows, etc is that I'm not very drawn to female leads. They're usually very boring, to me (and thus, I tend to cosplay only males. That, and, because I have to be female, and myself, every day. Booorriinnngg). These two are possibly the only two books/series/manga where I -like- the female lead (and so far, Madame Lefoux) in each book. Probably because they don't follow two protocols - either helpless and overly sensitive/emotional (though I don't mind some... I'm not a fan of too cold in personality) or on the other side of the scale, just another Charlie's Angels, sessy spy girl or lawyer... which just as much annoys me as the before mentioned. Luckily, these two (well, threeish? Lefoux really isn't a main character... but she's there plenty enough) are nothing like that.

Cut for length. Because I ramble. And decided to dissect both series, a little.




Deryn Sharp (Leviathan) is much like a female Indiana Jones, but the mouth of a sailor, that kicks ass and takes names... only cross-dressing just so she can serve in the Royal air navy/military (argh, I've forgotten the original title). She pretty much inadvertently made the lead male look like the damsel in distress. Probably because he kind of was. She took the role of the physical strength and he took the role of the mental prowess.
Poor Alek. He was shorter than her, too.
I really liked the injections of her girlish side, though - trying to keep her masculine appearance up so that the world would continue to think she were male, while thinking girly thoughts now and then when she can afford to. She wasn't static - not just one way or the other, she was both. My favorites were exactly those two - Deryn and Alek. They felt the most fleshed out - I think that was the only minor point I didn't like. The other characters weren't nearly as likable.

My largest complaint... well, I'll spoil it, but it's easy to see it coming, anyway. Now that they confess their feelings to each other and spill all the beans to the world, what are they like, together?
Don't know?
Neither do I!
The book ended right after that.

Bah. Barking spiders.



Alexia (The Parasol Protectorate) is alike to that, but in a lady-like? .... kind of way. Not so much masculine like Deryn, as she is more of... "don't eff with me - or I'll going to shove this lovely lacy parasol right where the sun don't shine." (Deryn would fit moreso into the wolf pack. She would have just punched the offending person). Just someone who isn't going to either lay down and take it, or let it affect them much. They're strong in their own way. And neither fit in the 'strong, sexy spy lady wielding a katana or whip' stereotype of strength. Even better, neither leading ladies are perfect. Huzzah!

Thumbs up, from me of course, for the large role of the werewolves. It's so hard to find a good story with werewolves in it that isn't ....Twilight... or only have minor roles. Or look like slightly elongated-faced apes. Anyway, for these Weres, I pretty much love all of the wolves + Lord Akeldama (in all of his vampiric, gloriously wise fruityness), with exception to one werewolf - but he was somewhat minor. He got a good beat down in Volume two, anyway (without giving anything away). So, Hah! ...go ...Team ...Woolsey pack...? Bluarrgh...
Anyway, Parasol Protectorate gave me plenty of characters I both liked and didn't like (but only because I wanted to slap them), so I have to say I'm pretty in love with this series. My favs being, *Deep breath* Alexia, Conall, Lyall, Akeldama, Biffy, Madame Lefoux... and maaaybe, *another deep breath* 'Channing Channing of the Chesterfield Channings'. If he can redeem himself further.
Poor guy. What an unfortunate name.
Interestingly enough, Madame Lefoux has been a bit of a muse for me, lately. She's yet another cross dresser (...do I sense a trend?).

Lyall reminds me of an old old old werewolf (ironic) character of mine, Akihito Rayne, (whom was runt of the litter, but incredibly smart, since he channeled all of his time into studying science and magicks, since he couldn't physically compete against the larger Weres by any means. Might as well one-up them in the intelligence department), a character from sometime in highschool... 2004? 2005? Whenever the time was when I re-launched Leoscetarius. Not the same by any means, just a somewhat remainder - smaller than the others and a preference towards using mental prowess over physical.
Hito has been as iconic of a character for me as Daven Nashi (which I've abused for just about everything, including the naming of this LJ) is... so Lyall gets a little special spot next to Hito.

The only thing I wish there were more of, is how Alexia feels towards Conall in the sense of -why- she loves(d) him. She came off as a bit cold at first, but by book three, there was emergence of some kind of emotion (besides anger). Unfortunately, I'm only part way in, so I can't say for certain just how much more emotion is divulged to readers (and I wonder if it's only because of a circumstance... that I won't divulge). Seemed less cold - like it wasn't just a shrug of the hands and a completely moving on with the world, unaffected by even the worst things. But then again, she's supposed to lack a soul to begin with - and is left with mostly pure logic (hence, the name of book one, Soulless). Conall makes up for that in troves.... by being the most emotional man on earth. -
"ROAAAARRR! WHY!? BECAUSE EFF YOU, THAT'S WHY *Punch*", "sadness... of ultimate dispair...", "Bwahahahatoeverything!", "HUNGRY, DAMMIT! D:<", "Hungry, dammit~ Teehee~ >:3".
Not to say "emo" or drama queen/king. Just very transparent on the feels. It's a good, blunt thing. At least, though, he puts those aside for his official duties in the B.U.R. as a professional (with exception to vol 3... not going to say who/what/why).



hah. Conall buttons = numerously pressed.

I can't wait for volume 3 of the manga to come out in the summer... but not looking forward to the day I finish the novels.

Anyway, my over-assessment of books and characters aside...

Did I mention I hate the ends of anything? I'll deliberately go out of my way NOT to complete a video game (unfortunatly, I'm not as easy to avoid the end in books, it seems) if I like it. I did this to all the Suikoden games and Infinite Undiscovery (...yeah, unfortunate name, again. 'Undiscovery'...), along with some others. Why? I'm unsure - I can only think that once the game ends, it's like the story and characters cease to exist. The End. Poof. Off into the ether of nothingness, never to make another comment again. I call that good character development... and the characters are what make or break everything.