Aaah! The Illusion of Life is amazing. Really lovely book, lots of gorgeous art, interesting stories and once you've read it nothing you watch will ever look the same again (well. . .animated stuff). Also, so much stuff about Disney in there and. . .yeah. ^^ I love it.
I have bought The Animator's Survival Kit for two different people but still don't own it. XD; I like it a lot, too, though - you need them both together, it's just that I haven't looked through it for a while. Well, that and I find thinking about The Animator's Survival Kit sort of depressing because of The Thief and the Cobbler.
All of which is to say. . .good reading choices! ^^;
(I like Coraline a lot too, and I don't generally like Neil Gaiman. ^^;)
I'm sort of curious, have you ever read any Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mystery books? They're. . .light and clever but they actually stick with you for a long time after you've read them, largely due to her characters, all of whom are really well developed over the course of the books.
Anyway, they seem like something you might like (okay, they seem like something everybody might like), and they're really easy to get your hands on. ^^; So that would be my recommendation.
Edit: oh, another book that I think everyone (and their dog, and extended family, and any aliens that might be observing them from outer space) needs to read is The Master and Margarita.
Essentially: in the greyest, coldest days of Stalinist Russia, Satan blows into Moscow with a retinue of servants (including a talking cat that drinks vodka); this ends up rolling into a big huge mess that involves literary clubs and talent shows and poets and a bunch of other crazy things. It also involves a destroyed novel that is alternately read, recited, and dreamed by different characters.
What sort of sets it apart (aside from the fact that it is awesome), is that the author actually wrote it during this time in total secrecy due to the political climate and it was discovered well after he was dead - so in many ways he just poured all of the freedom he couldn't give his other works into this one book, and it is just exploding with life and fun and craziness.
Yeah, I saw those two mentioned on this week's Answerman and how it was highly recommended both by Brian and the people on the forum...well, I figured it'd be a good thing for an animation geek. XD I saw the cover for The Illusion of Life on Amazon and it looked familiar, so I think I've read at least part of it for a school project (my last year of highschool was the beginning of my "OMG ANIMATION IS AWSUM" phase that got me back into both Disney and anime), but it'd probably be good to read again at my own leisure.
I've heard great things about Coraline and it seems to be my sort of book...and, well, I really liked Stardust, so.
Ooh, no, I don't think I have read them! Although the name sounds familiar. But "light and clever" with good characters sounds like something right up my ally, so I'll definitely add them onto my list. Thank you!
Looking through your Anime Planet thing I see quite a few anime I watched and enjoyed, so that looks like a good list to me. XD; A couple standouts would be Aria (though it is. . .terrifyingly sentimental and optimistic, be warned), Baccano! (though it gets really, really gory and I have not actually finished it yet), Beck (has an excellent dub for what is kind of an un-dubbable show, so you get a really interesting take on stuff depending on what language you watch it in), Clannad, and Emma. There are others, but then this would get really long. ^^;
I ended up dropping both Nanoha and Someday's Dreamers, though.
Kanon has one of the best dubs I've ever heard, but the show itself is mostly fluff. It's inoffensive fluff, though, and still fun to watch.
On a side note, I had been using ANN for this sort of thing but I think I will switch; this set up is a lot more convenient.
Aria is sort of a must-watch for me because it's directed by Junichi Sato. I'm wanting to see everything he's directed, if I can manage it, since I've enjoyed everything of his that I've seen so far (which I think is Pretear, Princess Tutu and the first season of Kaleido Star). Baccano! is sort of a must for me, too, since I've been craving more anime set in the 20's or 30's after Chrono Crusade. And Beck...well, Greg Ayres, singing. Plus I think my Dad would like it, too. And Emma I've got some of the manga of and like it, even if it's a bit...slow sometimes. XD So yeah, I'm sure I'll watch all of those eventually.
I've heard really mixed feelings on Nanoha, but I feel somewhat obligated to at least give it a try because it's the newest popular Magical Girl show. I can't even remember why I put the other one on the list, so maybe I'll put off watching that one...
Hey, well, Kanon has Chris Patton in it, so I figure I'd enjoy it for that at the very least. I saw the first episode when it was streaming on ANN and it seemed...pretty? Although if Patton's character hadn't started mocking that girl for saying "uguu~" I think I might've had an urge to hit her on the head.
...Sorry, you didn't need to know my reasoning behind those but I just...told you anyway.
Yeah, I really like Anime Planet's set up the best out of all the sites I've seen, particularly the way you can recommend shows--I've found some really great stuff that way. ANN's set up isn't bad, it's just a little clunkier to use, and...well, doesn't have the recommendation thing as much.
I think the first season of Emma is actually better than the manga (so does the mangaka, actually), and I read the manga (up through the beginning events of season two, anyway) first. It's also. . .really well-animated, which is sort of funny given the lack of action in the show.
Nanoha fans seem to always deny any implications that it is a magical girl show, which. . .sort of confuses me, to be honest. ^^; But it's not a terrible show, it's just. . .kind of okay (to me, anyway) and the places where it should have worked best were the places it worked worst (interpersonal relationships, mostly). I was sort of expecting something more realistic and darker, and Nanoha really does feel like. . .any normal magical girl show.
Hah, I like Ayu (uguuu girl) a lot, but. . .yeah, she is pretty over-the-top. XD The character Chris Patton plays is kind of the only reasonably grown-up character in the show, I think (even moreso than the adult characters). But. . .it's fluffy, it's very pretty, and the comedy is. . .actually pretty funny, most of the time.
ANN also isn't set up to list the episode you stopped at, which is really useful for me because sometimes I will take pretty long breaks while watching stuff. ^^; It's also useful if I drop a show and need to tell somebody where I stopped watching. The only downside is that somehow, my "want to watch" list has doubled in the transfer. ^^; Not sure how that happened.
Oooh...I didn't know it was well animated. Now I'm really looking forward to seeing it! XD
Seriously, they do? TV Tropes has it listed as a magical girl (Nanoha's even the picture on the Magical Girl page!). Although I have a friend that likes it and says it's not much of a MG show in the later seasons, so maybe that's it?
I think Ayu could be cute, sure, but boy that catchphrase is pretty annoying. XD And hey, pretty + comedy works in my book.
XD Were you looking through the recommendations, or something...?
Every time I see it come up it seems to be that they don't consider Nanoha magical girl because the magic and such seems more like machinery, but I may only have ever seen the wrong Nanoha fans. There seems to be a whole "Nanoha isn't magical girl, it's Gundam/Super Robot Wars with cute girls instead of robots" group, though I guess they could just be more vocal.
No, I was going through the list marking what I'd seen/dropped/stalled, etc., and I guess several things just sort of. . .caught my eye. ^^; Now I am going through the recommendations. . .this isn't going to end well.
I have bought The Animator's Survival Kit for two different people but still don't own it. XD; I like it a lot, too, though - you need them both together, it's just that I haven't looked through it for a while. Well, that and I find thinking about The Animator's Survival Kit sort of depressing because of The Thief and the Cobbler.
All of which is to say. . .good reading choices! ^^;
(I like Coraline a lot too, and I don't generally like Neil Gaiman. ^^;)
I'm sort of curious, have you ever read any Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mystery books? They're. . .light and clever but they actually stick with you for a long time after you've read them, largely due to her characters, all of whom are really well developed over the course of the books.
Anyway, they seem like something you might like (okay, they seem like something everybody might like), and they're really easy to get your hands on. ^^; So that would be my recommendation.
Edit: oh, another book that I think everyone (and their dog, and extended family, and any aliens that might be observing them from outer space) needs to read is The Master and Margarita.
Essentially: in the greyest, coldest days of Stalinist Russia, Satan blows into Moscow with a retinue of servants (including a talking cat that drinks vodka); this ends up rolling into a big huge mess that involves literary clubs and talent shows and poets and a bunch of other crazy things. It also involves a destroyed novel that is alternately read, recited, and dreamed by different characters.
What sort of sets it apart (aside from the fact that it is awesome), is that the author actually wrote it during this time in total secrecy due to the political climate and it was discovered well after he was dead - so in many ways he just poured all of the freedom he couldn't give his other works into this one book, and it is just exploding with life and fun and craziness.
It's. . .almost like a book FLCL.
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I've heard great things about Coraline and it seems to be my sort of book...and, well, I really liked Stardust, so.
Ooh, no, I don't think I have read them! Although the name sounds familiar. But "light and clever" with good characters sounds like something right up my ally, so I'll definitely add them onto my list. Thank you!
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Looking through your Anime Planet thing I see quite a few anime I watched and enjoyed, so that looks like a good list to me. XD; A couple standouts would be Aria (though it is. . .terrifyingly sentimental and optimistic, be warned), Baccano! (though it gets really, really gory and I have not actually finished it yet), Beck (has an excellent dub for what is kind of an un-dubbable show, so you get a really interesting take on stuff depending on what language you watch it in), Clannad, and Emma. There are others, but then this would get really long. ^^;
I ended up dropping both Nanoha and Someday's Dreamers, though.
Kanon has one of the best dubs I've ever heard, but the show itself is mostly fluff. It's inoffensive fluff, though, and still fun to watch.
On a side note, I had been using ANN for this sort of thing but I think I will switch; this set up is a lot more convenient.
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Aria is sort of a must-watch for me because it's directed by Junichi Sato. I'm wanting to see everything he's directed, if I can manage it, since I've enjoyed everything of his that I've seen so far (which I think is Pretear, Princess Tutu and the first season of Kaleido Star). Baccano! is sort of a must for me, too, since I've been craving more anime set in the 20's or 30's after Chrono Crusade. And Beck...well, Greg Ayres, singing. Plus I think my Dad would like it, too. And Emma I've got some of the manga of and like it, even if it's a bit...slow sometimes. XD So yeah, I'm sure I'll watch all of those eventually.
I've heard really mixed feelings on Nanoha, but I feel somewhat obligated to at least give it a try because it's the newest popular Magical Girl show. I can't even remember why I put the other one on the list, so maybe I'll put off watching that one...
Hey, well, Kanon has Chris Patton in it, so I figure I'd enjoy it for that at the very least. I saw the first episode when it was streaming on ANN and it seemed...pretty? Although if Patton's character hadn't started mocking that girl for saying "uguu~" I think I might've had an urge to hit her on the head.
...Sorry, you didn't need to know my reasoning behind those but I just...told you anyway.
Yeah, I really like Anime Planet's set up the best out of all the sites I've seen, particularly the way you can recommend shows--I've found some really great stuff that way. ANN's set up isn't bad, it's just a little clunkier to use, and...well, doesn't have the recommendation thing as much.
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Nanoha fans seem to always deny any implications that it is a magical girl show, which. . .sort of confuses me, to be honest. ^^; But it's not a terrible show, it's just. . .kind of okay (to me, anyway) and the places where it should have worked best were the places it worked worst (interpersonal relationships, mostly). I was sort of expecting something more realistic and darker, and Nanoha really does feel like. . .any normal magical girl show.
Hah, I like Ayu (uguuu girl) a lot, but. . .yeah, she is pretty over-the-top. XD The character Chris Patton plays is kind of the only reasonably grown-up character in the show, I think (even moreso than the adult characters). But. . .it's fluffy, it's very pretty, and the comedy is. . .actually pretty funny, most of the time.
ANN also isn't set up to list the episode you stopped at, which is really useful for me because sometimes I will take pretty long breaks while watching stuff. ^^; It's also useful if I drop a show and need to tell somebody where I stopped watching. The only downside is that somehow, my "want to watch" list has doubled in the transfer. ^^; Not sure how that happened.
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Seriously, they do? TV Tropes has it listed as a magical girl (Nanoha's even the picture on the Magical Girl page!). Although I have a friend that likes it and says it's not much of a MG show in the later seasons, so maybe that's it?
I think Ayu could be cute, sure, but boy that catchphrase is pretty annoying. XD And hey, pretty + comedy works in my book.
XD Were you looking through the recommendations, or something...?
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No, I was going through the list marking what I'd seen/dropped/stalled, etc., and I guess several things just sort of. . .caught my eye. ^^; Now I am going through the recommendations. . .this isn't going to end well.
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Ooooh, I see. Having a large To Watch list is both a good and a bad thing....Mine keeps getting overloaded but I CAN'T STOP
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