[breakin' through uchinukeyo, yami wo furihodoku]
Well, since I've been doing pretty much nothing but hibernating at my house and watching various anime/reading various manga, I'm going to go on about some of them at length here.
Since I just finished Baccano!, I'll actually start with that one first while my memory's still fresh. Because LET ME TELL YOU, THAT SHOW IS DISJOINTED. Oh, absolutely marvelous and awesome, but extremely hard to follow. And to even attempt to provide a summary will ultimately ruin about 3/4 of the show. D:
Despite that, I found myself REALLY enjoying Baccano, if only because the comedic robber duo, Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent, were SO FREAKING HILARIOUS. I usually hate comedic relief characters because their one-liners are lame or their stupid pervent hentai nosebleeds have already been done a billion times before, or you get tired of them being the butt of every joke or randomly getting beat up/injured as a cheap way to throw in humor (which, Isaac and Miria DO get hit by a car in one episode, but it's so unexpected that it actually is rather funny XD). No, instead their humor lies in the fact that they're so ENTHUSIASTIC about everything they do, and also rather quick to make up very improbable, dramatic scenarios about a person's situation that usually couldn't be farther from the truth. (I'm thinking of a scene close to the ending, where they completely misinterpret Czes' reasons for wanting to meet with Maiza here. Also, the entire situation with Eve and Dallas Genoard - which, I could go on about that forever anyway.)
As a matter of fact, I feel like the premise of Baccano would have completely FAILED if it weren't for the fact that the cast of characters was so extremely diverse and interesting. The plot was mostly character-driven, anyway, which only made the show that much more entertaining. From characters like the crybaby do-gooder Jacuzzi to the poetic pyscho Ladd, their entire backgrounds and stories were about as jumpy and distorted as the murderous train ride they all took together. Usually such over-the-top characters would annoy the crap out of me, but for a show like Baccano, they actually conveniently distract you from the fact that by episode 7 (out of a 13-episode series, mind you), you STILL don't know what the hell's going on, and yet you're still enjoying the shit out of this show anyway. XD;;
Another thing I enjoyed vastly was the fact that about 90% of the cast in any other anime would be considered conventionally unattractive, yet I STILL found myself lusting after dudes like...say, Ladd Russo or Isaac, who would be written off as ugly old dudes if this were some other show. In today's anime of ridiculously good-looking pretty men, it was actually pretty nice to see some "manly" males, as it were, people like Luck Gandor or even Nicholas-kun, the machinegun-toting news editor. (Though, if you ARE the type who enjoys the more traditional 'bishounen' type, there IS always Firo. And Czeslaw Meyer, for the shota fags. :P) I can't particularly say why I liked something like that, but it gave the show a grittier and more realistic feel, which definitely made all the random violence that was going on seem a lot harsher than it actually was if someone like, say, purple-nail-polish Itachi or sexy-fox-face Gin doing the same thing.
What I want to know is, what the hell happened to Huey Laforet? He was one hot-ass motherfucker. Though the ending with Chane and the fucking Rail Tracer was by far the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. (But also very WTF. Especially considering how Chane was hardly a big character up until her fight with Ladd. HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I LOVE LADD? I THINK I NEED TO REITERATE IT FOR CONTINUITY'S SAKE. I LOVE LADD.)
Though I do wish Isaac and Miria would have made Czeslaw Meyer their surrogate little brother or whatever at the end. D: His last scene with Maiza was really pathetic and adorable though - I grinned like a sappy little idiot throughout the whole thing. Mostly because Czes was...not very nice throughout the entire series, and finding out all the terrible shit he'd been through, and all his stupid emotional awkwardness and vulnerability... GAH. RABU DESU.
...despite that, though, Isaac and Miria are still my favorite characters EVAR. For anything. Sorry Suzaku, you giant fag, those two are even bigger idiots AND they don't gay it up with stupid occassional seriousness like you did.
Anyway, my fangirlish squealing aside, I totally recommend this show to watch. I DON'T recommend watching it sporadically, because you'll probably forget WTF happened over the entire course of the series and they don't backtrack or do you any explanatory favors. So watch it in 2 or 3 sittings, if you can. O.o;; You can totally find all the episodes to download off MegaFuckload here. Or BitTorrent probably still has active seeds for it, since the series isn't that old and finished up fairly recently.
On the other subject of anime, I FINALLY quit being lazy about Bleach and caught up with the Arrancar arc, because I'd heard good things. Good things were delivered. Sort of.
Unfortunately, 'bout the only Arrancar I really like is Grimmjow, which sucks because I'm pretty sure he's bitten the dust in the latest manga chapters and now we're left with pretty-face-brick-personality Ulquiorra and, like...that hot chick. With the yellow hair.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, I WANT THE VAIZARD TO COME BACK. D: I loved Shinji and his creepy teeth and Hiyori and her poofy pigtails and Lisa and her uber-lesbianism. I definitely enjoyed their ghetto, Osaka-accent barbeque parties far more than anything the Arrancar have to offer. I especially enjoyed Hiyori and her acts of random violence. :D I hope Kubo Tite doesn't forget about them after the Hueco Mundo arc is over. (WHICH, AFTER THAT, DOES THAT MEAN THE SERIES WILL END??? O.o I mean, since it's pretty much, "the world is going to be destroyed at the end of the winter" or whatever the hell time it was, it's pretty safe to say that after Ichigo Etc. kicks Aizen's ass, that Bleach will end. ...or go the route of One Piece and continue, despite any logic or common sense.)
The one thing that surprised me was that SO MANY PEOPLE were complaining about how this arc suddenly switched everything from being IchiRuki-centric to suddenly being IchiHime-centric. UH, HOW SO??? O.o Because Orihime is the one who's kidnapped now, and Ichigo is going to save her? I'm definitely not catching any more IchiHime vibes than usual other than the fact that the person she chose to say bye to when she left for Hueco Mundo was Ichigo, and also the fact that ooh big whoop she was going to kiss him when he was sleeping (but bailed at the last minute, IIRC? my memory fails me on this one). Maybe it's just because I never really LIKED Rukia until this arc, and was always a rabid IchiHime shipper (ACTUALLY, A RABID ISHIHIME SHIPPER, WHICH, WTF HAPPENED TO THAT COUPLE, TITE? HUNH?!?! GOD DAMN), I just...don't see what the hell people are complaining about.
OH WAIT I FORGOT THE OPENINGS AND ENDINGS NOW HAVE GRATUITOUS ORIHIME IN THEM WHICH AUTOMATICALLY MEANS SHE'S GOING TO GET TOGETHER WITH ICHIGO. NOT THAT'S SHE CENTRAL TO THE PLOT IN A WAY OTHER THAN "LOVE INTEREST".
That aside...it's weird to say so, but I'm actually glad that Chad is getting some awesome beefy-arm power ups instead of the one he's had for the entire series. Same with Ishida. Like, SO MUCH OF THE SERIES is all about Ichigo gaining bad-ass abilities and also to a lesser extent Rukia (post Soul-Society arc, of course), and Renji, and shit even Hitsugaya and all those fags who came to Karakura Town during the Arrancar invasion got to do bad-ass things but here's poor Ishida and Chad, still stuck at where they were when they went to the Soul Society. D: (Which, granted, Ishida didn't have any Quincy powers then, but WHERE THE HELL DID CHAD GO? He was forgotten amidst the grand scheme of things. Which, also, could be blamed on the inconsistency of the filler arc that totally wasn't in the original manga. Yeah, I guess when I think about that it's not like Chad dropped off the face of the earth or didn't get more powerful or anything; it's just that he didn't do much during the filler arc, WHICH TOOK SO DAMNED LONG BECAUSE I FORGOT BLEACH IS A SHOUNEN ANIME.)
I like all the Ulquiorra/Orihime pretty fanart that's been floating around, though. Though I don't like Ulquiorra. At all. What a fucking tool. When is Gin going to do shit, too? I'm so sad that they reduced him to the role of "Arrancar Encyclopedia" and nothing else. What a fucking demotion. He used to be so badass, too. Like, here's Aizen, doing tons of bad-ass things and drinking tea, and Gin is...talking to Luppi. Not even on-screen. OH, GINNNNNN ;____;
It should be noted that I adore Nel, though. I can't wait 'til she gets all *SPOILER* and buxom in the anime. In some weird, pedophilic way, I could totally see Nel/Ichigo. His sister complex came back to bite him in the ass, ha ha. "OH GOD, JUST STOP *CRYING* ALREADY, I'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT D:". Oh Ichigo you fag. Pesche was pretty funny, too - I actually cracked up a lot during Ishida's fight with Cirucci, where Pesche was trying to see up her skirt and kept calling Ishida "Ichigo" and going on and on about how they were best friends and stuff. XD I don't usually LOL out loud at Bleach, because most of the humor is superficial and trite (see: earlier response to Isaac and Miria from Baccano), but a lot of Nel and Pesche-related scenarios make me giggle.
I've also been thinking lately, that I really want Urahara to do something cool. I KNOW he's got it in him, and I know Tite is probably saving up all the awesome Urahara-ness for right around the end, but GODDAMMIT ME WANTS NOW ;_____; and also I am rather curious about his bankai. "Not something to make people stronger", eh? Oh Urahara, I enjoy your mocking condescending yet-outwardly-polite tone and then your random serious emo. ♥
...why is Seele Schneider the only German-esque name out of Ishida's entire epic Quincy arsenal? Kaien's shikai, Nejibana, was pretty cool, too. Though I thought the whole thing with Aaroniero was stupid. It would have been cooler if it was actually Kaien. But then, I'm a sadist, so.
Still, Bleach remains, as usual, pretty boring. (IRONIC HOW MUCH I'M TALKING ABOUT IT, EH?) I mean, if you're going to watch something, watch Baccano instead, by far. It's shorter, too, and SHIT ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN A SINGLE EPISODE RATHER THAN NOTHING AT ALL. (Fuck you, Menos Forest brief sub-arc.)
In other shounen-anime related news, I'm thinking about picking up Katekyou Hitman Reborn, since it seems to be the newest fangasm. Thoughts?
So, last in my fangirl squeeing/ranting/observation-ing is Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, which - go figure - I'd actually gotten into briefly when the anime first had it's run a year or so back. I watched the two seasons of the anime, was pretty entertained by it, and then promptly forgot about it when I heard that the manga continued waaaaaay past when the anime stopped, and that they weren't going to make an anime of the later bits at all because the story was too dark. Which, for me, back then, I definitely really wasn't into reading manga (I could read the volumes of them from the bookstore, but for some reason couldn't STOMACH scanslations), so I just decided to let shit lie and read the Wiki on what happens to everyone during the Acid Tokyo arc and thereafter.
Well, recently, some TV production company picked up the rights to an OVA (forgot which one it was) called Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations. Intrigued, mostly because the opening song "Synchronicity" was so freaking gorgeous, I downloaded the two episodes that were out subbed, and - HOLY CRAP. Everything from the original series was so vastly improved that it was awesome - the animation (though sometimes the character's faces look weird - I'M LOOKING AT YOU, FAI), the overall tone; though the soundtrack didn't need any improving, admittedly, what with tracks by Yuki Kajiura, but still. The fight sequences were awesome, too, though I don't remember if they were awesome in the original series or not. (They probably were. I seem to remember being impressed by something of the sort even if the Tsubasa anime tended to drag things out that didn't need to be dragged out. CLAMP? IN MY SHOUNEN? IT'S MORE LIKELY THAN YOU THINK.)
So, spurred by my raging hard-on for the Tokyo Revelations OVA, I decided to finally bite the bullet and catch up on the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle manga. Which...really hurt my eyes, reading it all in one sitting, but I digress.
The one thing I will say about all the recent plot developments...uh, OUCH, CLAMP. Granted, their style has always been emo bordering on macabre, but since Tsubasa had stayed relatively emo-free until then, it kind of punched you in the gut when real-Syaoran showed up, and Fai got his eye ripped out, and Sakura just generally sat in her bubble going "OMGWTF".
UNFORTUNATELY, because all that emo hit you at once, the subsequent emo that followed in Celes country kind of...well, it kind of felt FORCED, which is terrible because all of Fai's backstory was terrible, but at that point I was just kind of like..."oh, wow CLAMP, I kind of thought you could do better than abused identical twins, lol". Fai's first curse was interesting, but the second one, and Kurogane's subsequent cutting-off-his-own-arm also just struck me as JESUS CHRIST LOOK AT ALL THIS TRAUMA DOESN'T THIS FEEL MORE LIKE CLAMP NOW THAN SAY, RUMIKO TAKAHASHI HUR HUR? There was just...so much AAAAAAANGST, and characters calling the wahhhhbulance on themselves and I really just kind of wanted to punch Fai at some points. Which is perhaps how you're supposed to feel, I dunno.
Although, I will say, I was TOTALLY AMUSED AT HOW KUROGANE PRETTY MUCH BECAME EVERYONE'S MOTHER AFTER THE ACID TOKYO ARC. Like, here's Sakura, with the Syaoran she's always known gone batshit, and this OTHER Syaoran appearing out of the blue, and Fai with his missing eyeball and "oh god how dare you save my life" emo, and the real Syaoran and his whole "D: nobody really wants me here but I have to be here to protect Sakura" dilemma. Shit, even MOKONA was emo because everyone else was emo. O.o And then there's Kurogane, being everyone's mother, and saving their lives and getting them drunk and yelling at them when they're being a fuckwit, etc. It was really awesome. Like, they totally would have fell apart if Kurogane hadn't been there, and I thought that whole conundrum was actually rather adorable considering what a jackass he was in the beginning to begin with.
Actually, it should be noted that I love Kurogane in general. Mostly his interactions with Syaoran. Like, when I was first getting into Tsubasa, I was all like, "WTF?! KuroFai??? I mean, I can SEE it, but he definitely has a softer spot for Syaoran than anyone else!" and then the Acid Tokyo arc happened lol. CLAMP couldn't have made it any gayer than "make this guy a vampire because I don't want him to die and it's totally cool now that the only person's blood he can drink now is my own, totally not gay at all, yup". And then the arm-cutting thing, and their epic gay-love fight in Celes, which, GOD I HATE THAT ARC but I'll get to that in a second.
So, I managed to see KuroFai in a lot of ways, but I think in my heart of hearts my dirty naughty OTP will still be Kurogane/Syaoran. D: Which the fandom seems to ignore, generally. Which...fjadfkadg;lkad;fads. But the scene where Kurogane gets him drunk in Infinity was really adorable. I mean, not pedo-adorable, but just...I dunno, big-brother, feel-better-about-yourself-already adorable. Oh, Kurogane, how did you suddenly become my favorite character when I hated you so much in the beginning.
Which...I feel like it's necessary to point out that I TOTALLY DIDN'T LIKE SAKURA'S WHOLE CREEPY-DETERMINED FACE AFTER THE ACID TOKYO ARC THING. I mean, I feel like her personality did this whole scary apathetic 180 which yar, I know was because of the fact that she got her ability as a dreamseer back and she was trying to be distant from the others in order to save them from being, like, brutally killed by Fai (O.o?!), but I just felt like it was all kind of...extreme. And her suddenly being a clone of the original Sakura during the Nihon arc kind of lost it's impact considering CLAMP had already busted out that mind-fuck with Syaoran. So it wasn't as OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL as it was with Syaoran. I'm also assuming that the clone Syaoran will probably have to bite it at some point, so the "original" Syaoran and Sakura can be together in their epic, dimension-spanning love. (Though the opening panels of Tsubasa Chronicle make me feel like the whole thing won't end happily at all. O.o)
At any rate, it was...well, it was kind of DISTURBING, really, to watch the way the entire party fell apart after Acid Tokyo, except, er, Kurogane who has a temperament of steel but that's a different story. Like, especially Sakura and Fai. Watching them cut themselves off from everyone else and form this weird, creepy, co-dependent relationship with each other was...well, what the hell. Like, TRC has ALWAYS been separated into groups of twos - Sakura and Syaoran, Kurogane and Fai, and even less-prominent twos of Kurogane and Syaoran and Sakura and Fai - but to watch themselves split up into those sectors like that was...ouch. And I think Kurogane even said it, once, that it wasn't a good idea for Sakura and Fai to hole themselves up together like that because they were both too alike, and would just make the other worse.
Which, OH, BY THE WAY, THIS FUCKING PANEL *KILLED* ME. Like, right after Fai gets turned into a vampire by Kurogane's request, even though he's always wanted to die, and he wakes up after that, and calls Kurogane by his full name for the first time...god, I about died. (Sorry the image is, like...X-BOX HUEG, though. I didn't feel like resizing it. Scanslations are fucking giant - I wonder why.) Anyway, Fai's subsequent conversation with Yuuko afterwards was pathetically adorable, too - "if I forgive him for saving my life, I'll be even closer to him". GAH.
I will say, though, that despite all the super-buildup to Fai's backstory and past, I really...DISLIKED the Celes arc. O.o I mean, for some reason, I felt like his whole situation in being born a cursed twin and his fake memory of having killed his brother and Ashura's whole weird brain-washing WTF-ever thing was just really...I mean, at this point, I kind of almost thought it was RIDICULOUS, really, the way the shit kept hitting the fan and how you were supposed to care. Granted, it was also 3 in the morning so maybe I was just tired, who knows. I'm still confused by that, anyway? So Ashura took Fai in with the whole intent that he would grow up one day to kill him? WHY THE HELL WAS ASHURA KILLING ALL THOSE RANDOM PEOPLE, ANYWAY? O.o Did they explain that and I just missed it? Oh, lawdz.
Kurogane's arm-cutting-off scene was pretty awesome, though. And when Fai punched him, when they were in Japan, and called him "Kuro-sama" again...eeeeeeeeee. After all that wangst, it was awesome to finally see some happy again. (Though WTF with Kurogane's Fullmetal Alchemist arm, srsly.)
Mostly I just disliked the Celes arc because there was this giant epic battle going on, with all of these flashbacks to Fai's past interrupting the action, and it was REALLY FREAKING HARD TO UNDERSTAND BECAUSE I'M RETARDED. ;___; Though I was mostly hoping his past would be something cooler than that. Than, like, "oh, I've sort-of-but-not-really-been-working-for-the-bad-guy-this-whole-time", which, pffft, WTF-ever. Just call the WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHmbulance on yourself already, Fai, and get it the hell over with. (Though I did like the little inclusion of backstory about why he always smiles. It was really cute. :D Even if Ashura SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME. O.o Inordinately. Like, base fear. More than Seishirou, which is saying something. Tokyo Babylon Seishirou, mind you, not his weenie TRC counterpart.)
Moving along, I actually prefer the real Syaoran to the clone one, which is ironic considering that you spend most of the Tsubasa manga getting to KNOW the clone one, and while the two are pretty similar in disposition, the real Syaoran just...I dunno, his worldliness and his bizarre maturity and everything else just makes me want to squish him to my bosom. ^___^
ALSO, YES, I'M MADLY IN LOVE WITH KUROGANE. END SENTENCE. My favorite scene with him was probably the one in Nihon country, this one, because it was just so brusque and Kurogane and they finally addressed that "true meaning of strength" issue that CLAMP had been successfully dodging for 160+ chapters. Eeeee.
Anyway, I've gone on enough about this, and I've got work to do (*at work, wut*), so it's time to cut this short. I'M SURE YOU'RE ALL SADDENED. /sarcasm Thoughts, arguments, general squeeage and/or fic requests in the comments, y0.
Also, I'm sure some of you have noticed from my "current music" section, but, HOLY GOD THERE IS A PERSONA ANIME. There's only 4 episodes out, which I'm waiting to watch until the series progresses a little further because if it's Persona than that means epic hair-pulling cliffhangers at the end of every episode and I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. ;___; Still! Persona! It has a vaguely "Innocent Sin" feel about it what with the character designs and the older hot-ass police brother and everything, but we'll see.
[EDIT]: Oh boo Persona anime is just a sequel to Persona 3. I fucking HATED Persona 3. Blah. Shit is gay. Oh well, I can still dream.
Since I just finished Baccano!, I'll actually start with that one first while my memory's still fresh. Because LET ME TELL YOU, THAT SHOW IS DISJOINTED. Oh, absolutely marvelous and awesome, but extremely hard to follow. And to even attempt to provide a summary will ultimately ruin about 3/4 of the show. D:
Despite that, I found myself REALLY enjoying Baccano, if only because the comedic robber duo, Isaac Dian and Miria Harvent, were SO FREAKING HILARIOUS. I usually hate comedic relief characters because their one-liners are lame or their stupid pervent hentai nosebleeds have already been done a billion times before, or you get tired of them being the butt of every joke or randomly getting beat up/injured as a cheap way to throw in humor (which, Isaac and Miria DO get hit by a car in one episode, but it's so unexpected that it actually is rather funny XD). No, instead their humor lies in the fact that they're so ENTHUSIASTIC about everything they do, and also rather quick to make up very improbable, dramatic scenarios about a person's situation that usually couldn't be farther from the truth. (I'm thinking of a scene close to the ending, where they completely misinterpret Czes' reasons for wanting to meet with Maiza here. Also, the entire situation with Eve and Dallas Genoard - which, I could go on about that forever anyway.)
As a matter of fact, I feel like the premise of Baccano would have completely FAILED if it weren't for the fact that the cast of characters was so extremely diverse and interesting. The plot was mostly character-driven, anyway, which only made the show that much more entertaining. From characters like the crybaby do-gooder Jacuzzi to the poetic pyscho Ladd, their entire backgrounds and stories were about as jumpy and distorted as the murderous train ride they all took together. Usually such over-the-top characters would annoy the crap out of me, but for a show like Baccano, they actually conveniently distract you from the fact that by episode 7 (out of a 13-episode series, mind you), you STILL don't know what the hell's going on, and yet you're still enjoying the shit out of this show anyway. XD;;
Another thing I enjoyed vastly was the fact that about 90% of the cast in any other anime would be considered conventionally unattractive, yet I STILL found myself lusting after dudes like...say, Ladd Russo or Isaac, who would be written off as ugly old dudes if this were some other show. In today's anime of ridiculously good-looking pretty men, it was actually pretty nice to see some "manly" males, as it were, people like Luck Gandor or even Nicholas-kun, the machinegun-toting news editor. (Though, if you ARE the type who enjoys the more traditional 'bishounen' type, there IS always Firo. And Czeslaw Meyer, for the shota fags. :P) I can't particularly say why I liked something like that, but it gave the show a grittier and more realistic feel, which definitely made all the random violence that was going on seem a lot harsher than it actually was if someone like, say, purple-nail-polish Itachi or sexy-fox-face Gin doing the same thing.
What I want to know is, what the hell happened to Huey Laforet? He was one hot-ass motherfucker. Though the ending with Chane and the fucking Rail Tracer was by far the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. (But also very WTF. Especially considering how Chane was hardly a big character up until her fight with Ladd. HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I LOVE LADD? I THINK I NEED TO REITERATE IT FOR CONTINUITY'S SAKE. I LOVE LADD.)
Though I do wish Isaac and Miria would have made Czeslaw Meyer their surrogate little brother or whatever at the end. D: His last scene with Maiza was really pathetic and adorable though - I grinned like a sappy little idiot throughout the whole thing. Mostly because Czes was...not very nice throughout the entire series, and finding out all the terrible shit he'd been through, and all his stupid emotional awkwardness and vulnerability... GAH. RABU DESU.
...despite that, though, Isaac and Miria are still my favorite characters EVAR. For anything. Sorry Suzaku, you giant fag, those two are even bigger idiots AND they don't gay it up with stupid occassional seriousness like you did.
Anyway, my fangirlish squealing aside, I totally recommend this show to watch. I DON'T recommend watching it sporadically, because you'll probably forget WTF happened over the entire course of the series and they don't backtrack or do you any explanatory favors. So watch it in 2 or 3 sittings, if you can. O.o;; You can totally find all the episodes to download off MegaFuckload here. Or BitTorrent probably still has active seeds for it, since the series isn't that old and finished up fairly recently.
On the other subject of anime, I FINALLY quit being lazy about Bleach and caught up with the Arrancar arc, because I'd heard good things. Good things were delivered. Sort of.
Unfortunately, 'bout the only Arrancar I really like is Grimmjow, which sucks because I'm pretty sure he's bitten the dust in the latest manga chapters and now we're left with pretty-face-brick-personality Ulquiorra and, like...that hot chick. With the yellow hair.
MORE IMPORTANTLY, I WANT THE VAIZARD TO COME BACK. D: I loved Shinji and his creepy teeth and Hiyori and her poofy pigtails and Lisa and her uber-lesbianism. I definitely enjoyed their ghetto, Osaka-accent barbeque parties far more than anything the Arrancar have to offer. I especially enjoyed Hiyori and her acts of random violence. :D I hope Kubo Tite doesn't forget about them after the Hueco Mundo arc is over. (WHICH, AFTER THAT, DOES THAT MEAN THE SERIES WILL END??? O.o I mean, since it's pretty much, "the world is going to be destroyed at the end of the winter" or whatever the hell time it was, it's pretty safe to say that after Ichigo Etc. kicks Aizen's ass, that Bleach will end. ...or go the route of One Piece and continue, despite any logic or common sense.)
The one thing that surprised me was that SO MANY PEOPLE were complaining about how this arc suddenly switched everything from being IchiRuki-centric to suddenly being IchiHime-centric. UH, HOW SO??? O.o Because Orihime is the one who's kidnapped now, and Ichigo is going to save her? I'm definitely not catching any more IchiHime vibes than usual other than the fact that the person she chose to say bye to when she left for Hueco Mundo was Ichigo, and also the fact that ooh big whoop she was going to kiss him when he was sleeping (but bailed at the last minute, IIRC? my memory fails me on this one). Maybe it's just because I never really LIKED Rukia until this arc, and was always a rabid IchiHime shipper (ACTUALLY, A RABID ISHIHIME SHIPPER, WHICH, WTF HAPPENED TO THAT COUPLE, TITE? HUNH?!?! GOD DAMN), I just...don't see what the hell people are complaining about.
OH WAIT I FORGOT THE OPENINGS AND ENDINGS NOW HAVE GRATUITOUS ORIHIME IN THEM WHICH AUTOMATICALLY MEANS SHE'S GOING TO GET TOGETHER WITH ICHIGO. NOT THAT'S SHE CENTRAL TO THE PLOT IN A WAY OTHER THAN "LOVE INTEREST".
That aside...it's weird to say so, but I'm actually glad that Chad is getting some awesome beefy-arm power ups instead of the one he's had for the entire series. Same with Ishida. Like, SO MUCH OF THE SERIES is all about Ichigo gaining bad-ass abilities and also to a lesser extent Rukia (post Soul-Society arc, of course), and Renji, and shit even Hitsugaya and all those fags who came to Karakura Town during the Arrancar invasion got to do bad-ass things but here's poor Ishida and Chad, still stuck at where they were when they went to the Soul Society. D: (Which, granted, Ishida didn't have any Quincy powers then, but WHERE THE HELL DID CHAD GO? He was forgotten amidst the grand scheme of things. Which, also, could be blamed on the inconsistency of the filler arc that totally wasn't in the original manga. Yeah, I guess when I think about that it's not like Chad dropped off the face of the earth or didn't get more powerful or anything; it's just that he didn't do much during the filler arc, WHICH TOOK SO DAMNED LONG BECAUSE I FORGOT BLEACH IS A SHOUNEN ANIME.)
I like all the Ulquiorra/Orihime pretty fanart that's been floating around, though. Though I don't like Ulquiorra. At all. What a fucking tool. When is Gin going to do shit, too? I'm so sad that they reduced him to the role of "Arrancar Encyclopedia" and nothing else. What a fucking demotion. He used to be so badass, too. Like, here's Aizen, doing tons of bad-ass things and drinking tea, and Gin is...talking to Luppi. Not even on-screen. OH, GINNNNNN ;____;
It should be noted that I adore Nel, though. I can't wait 'til she gets all *SPOILER* and buxom in the anime. In some weird, pedophilic way, I could totally see Nel/Ichigo. His sister complex came back to bite him in the ass, ha ha. "OH GOD, JUST STOP *CRYING* ALREADY, I'LL DO WHATEVER YOU WANT D:". Oh Ichigo you fag. Pesche was pretty funny, too - I actually cracked up a lot during Ishida's fight with Cirucci, where Pesche was trying to see up her skirt and kept calling Ishida "Ichigo" and going on and on about how they were best friends and stuff. XD I don't usually LOL out loud at Bleach, because most of the humor is superficial and trite (see: earlier response to Isaac and Miria from Baccano), but a lot of Nel and Pesche-related scenarios make me giggle.
I've also been thinking lately, that I really want Urahara to do something cool. I KNOW he's got it in him, and I know Tite is probably saving up all the awesome Urahara-ness for right around the end, but GODDAMMIT ME WANTS NOW ;_____; and also I am rather curious about his bankai. "Not something to make people stronger", eh? Oh Urahara, I enjoy your mocking condescending yet-outwardly-polite tone and then your random serious emo. ♥
...why is Seele Schneider the only German-esque name out of Ishida's entire epic Quincy arsenal? Kaien's shikai, Nejibana, was pretty cool, too. Though I thought the whole thing with Aaroniero was stupid. It would have been cooler if it was actually Kaien. But then, I'm a sadist, so.
Still, Bleach remains, as usual, pretty boring. (IRONIC HOW MUCH I'M TALKING ABOUT IT, EH?) I mean, if you're going to watch something, watch Baccano instead, by far. It's shorter, too, and SHIT ACTUALLY HAPPENS IN A SINGLE EPISODE RATHER THAN NOTHING AT ALL. (Fuck you, Menos Forest brief sub-arc.)
In other shounen-anime related news, I'm thinking about picking up Katekyou Hitman Reborn, since it seems to be the newest fangasm. Thoughts?
So, last in my fangirl squeeing/ranting/observation-ing is Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, which - go figure - I'd actually gotten into briefly when the anime first had it's run a year or so back. I watched the two seasons of the anime, was pretty entertained by it, and then promptly forgot about it when I heard that the manga continued waaaaaay past when the anime stopped, and that they weren't going to make an anime of the later bits at all because the story was too dark. Which, for me, back then, I definitely really wasn't into reading manga (I could read the volumes of them from the bookstore, but for some reason couldn't STOMACH scanslations), so I just decided to let shit lie and read the Wiki on what happens to everyone during the Acid Tokyo arc and thereafter.
Well, recently, some TV production company picked up the rights to an OVA (forgot which one it was) called Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations. Intrigued, mostly because the opening song "Synchronicity" was so freaking gorgeous, I downloaded the two episodes that were out subbed, and - HOLY CRAP. Everything from the original series was so vastly improved that it was awesome - the animation (though sometimes the character's faces look weird - I'M LOOKING AT YOU, FAI), the overall tone; though the soundtrack didn't need any improving, admittedly, what with tracks by Yuki Kajiura, but still. The fight sequences were awesome, too, though I don't remember if they were awesome in the original series or not. (They probably were. I seem to remember being impressed by something of the sort even if the Tsubasa anime tended to drag things out that didn't need to be dragged out. CLAMP? IN MY SHOUNEN? IT'S MORE LIKELY THAN YOU THINK.)
So, spurred by my raging hard-on for the Tokyo Revelations OVA, I decided to finally bite the bullet and catch up on the Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle manga. Which...really hurt my eyes, reading it all in one sitting, but I digress.
The one thing I will say about all the recent plot developments...uh, OUCH, CLAMP. Granted, their style has always been emo bordering on macabre, but since Tsubasa had stayed relatively emo-free until then, it kind of punched you in the gut when real-Syaoran showed up, and Fai got his eye ripped out, and Sakura just generally sat in her bubble going "OMGWTF".
UNFORTUNATELY, because all that emo hit you at once, the subsequent emo that followed in Celes country kind of...well, it kind of felt FORCED, which is terrible because all of Fai's backstory was terrible, but at that point I was just kind of like..."oh, wow CLAMP, I kind of thought you could do better than abused identical twins, lol". Fai's first curse was interesting, but the second one, and Kurogane's subsequent cutting-off-his-own-arm also just struck me as JESUS CHRIST LOOK AT ALL THIS TRAUMA DOESN'T THIS FEEL MORE LIKE CLAMP NOW THAN SAY, RUMIKO TAKAHASHI HUR HUR? There was just...so much AAAAAAANGST, and characters calling the wahhhhbulance on themselves and I really just kind of wanted to punch Fai at some points. Which is perhaps how you're supposed to feel, I dunno.
Although, I will say, I was TOTALLY AMUSED AT HOW KUROGANE PRETTY MUCH BECAME EVERYONE'S MOTHER AFTER THE ACID TOKYO ARC. Like, here's Sakura, with the Syaoran she's always known gone batshit, and this OTHER Syaoran appearing out of the blue, and Fai with his missing eyeball and "oh god how dare you save my life" emo, and the real Syaoran and his whole "D: nobody really wants me here but I have to be here to protect Sakura" dilemma. Shit, even MOKONA was emo because everyone else was emo. O.o And then there's Kurogane, being everyone's mother, and saving their lives and getting them drunk and yelling at them when they're being a fuckwit, etc. It was really awesome. Like, they totally would have fell apart if Kurogane hadn't been there, and I thought that whole conundrum was actually rather adorable considering what a jackass he was in the beginning to begin with.
Actually, it should be noted that I love Kurogane in general. Mostly his interactions with Syaoran. Like, when I was first getting into Tsubasa, I was all like, "WTF?! KuroFai??? I mean, I can SEE it, but he definitely has a softer spot for Syaoran than anyone else!" and then the Acid Tokyo arc happened lol. CLAMP couldn't have made it any gayer than "make this guy a vampire because I don't want him to die and it's totally cool now that the only person's blood he can drink now is my own, totally not gay at all, yup". And then the arm-cutting thing, and their epic gay-love fight in Celes, which, GOD I HATE THAT ARC but I'll get to that in a second.
So, I managed to see KuroFai in a lot of ways, but I think in my heart of hearts my dirty naughty OTP will still be Kurogane/Syaoran. D: Which the fandom seems to ignore, generally. Which...fjadfkadg;lkad;fads. But the scene where Kurogane gets him drunk in Infinity was really adorable. I mean, not pedo-adorable, but just...I dunno, big-brother, feel-better-about-yourself-already adorable. Oh, Kurogane, how did you suddenly become my favorite character when I hated you so much in the beginning.
Which...I feel like it's necessary to point out that I TOTALLY DIDN'T LIKE SAKURA'S WHOLE CREEPY-DETERMINED FACE AFTER THE ACID TOKYO ARC THING. I mean, I feel like her personality did this whole scary apathetic 180 which yar, I know was because of the fact that she got her ability as a dreamseer back and she was trying to be distant from the others in order to save them from being, like, brutally killed by Fai (O.o?!), but I just felt like it was all kind of...extreme. And her suddenly being a clone of the original Sakura during the Nihon arc kind of lost it's impact considering CLAMP had already busted out that mind-fuck with Syaoran. So it wasn't as OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL as it was with Syaoran. I'm also assuming that the clone Syaoran will probably have to bite it at some point, so the "original" Syaoran and Sakura can be together in their epic, dimension-spanning love. (Though the opening panels of Tsubasa Chronicle make me feel like the whole thing won't end happily at all. O.o)
At any rate, it was...well, it was kind of DISTURBING, really, to watch the way the entire party fell apart after Acid Tokyo, except, er, Kurogane who has a temperament of steel but that's a different story. Like, especially Sakura and Fai. Watching them cut themselves off from everyone else and form this weird, creepy, co-dependent relationship with each other was...well, what the hell. Like, TRC has ALWAYS been separated into groups of twos - Sakura and Syaoran, Kurogane and Fai, and even less-prominent twos of Kurogane and Syaoran and Sakura and Fai - but to watch themselves split up into those sectors like that was...ouch. And I think Kurogane even said it, once, that it wasn't a good idea for Sakura and Fai to hole themselves up together like that because they were both too alike, and would just make the other worse.
Which, OH, BY THE WAY, THIS FUCKING PANEL *KILLED* ME. Like, right after Fai gets turned into a vampire by Kurogane's request, even though he's always wanted to die, and he wakes up after that, and calls Kurogane by his full name for the first time...god, I about died. (Sorry the image is, like...X-BOX HUEG, though. I didn't feel like resizing it. Scanslations are fucking giant - I wonder why.) Anyway, Fai's subsequent conversation with Yuuko afterwards was pathetically adorable, too - "if I forgive him for saving my life, I'll be even closer to him". GAH.
I will say, though, that despite all the super-buildup to Fai's backstory and past, I really...DISLIKED the Celes arc. O.o I mean, for some reason, I felt like his whole situation in being born a cursed twin and his fake memory of having killed his brother and Ashura's whole weird brain-washing WTF-ever thing was just really...I mean, at this point, I kind of almost thought it was RIDICULOUS, really, the way the shit kept hitting the fan and how you were supposed to care. Granted, it was also 3 in the morning so maybe I was just tired, who knows. I'm still confused by that, anyway? So Ashura took Fai in with the whole intent that he would grow up one day to kill him? WHY THE HELL WAS ASHURA KILLING ALL THOSE RANDOM PEOPLE, ANYWAY? O.o Did they explain that and I just missed it? Oh, lawdz.
Kurogane's arm-cutting-off scene was pretty awesome, though. And when Fai punched him, when they were in Japan, and called him "Kuro-sama" again...eeeeeeeeee. After all that wangst, it was awesome to finally see some happy again. (Though WTF with Kurogane's Fullmetal Alchemist arm, srsly.)
Mostly I just disliked the Celes arc because there was this giant epic battle going on, with all of these flashbacks to Fai's past interrupting the action, and it was REALLY FREAKING HARD TO UNDERSTAND BECAUSE I'M RETARDED. ;___; Though I was mostly hoping his past would be something cooler than that. Than, like, "oh, I've sort-of-but-not-really-been-working-for-the-bad-guy-this-whole-time", which, pffft, WTF-ever. Just call the WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHmbulance on yourself already, Fai, and get it the hell over with. (Though I did like the little inclusion of backstory about why he always smiles. It was really cute. :D Even if Ashura SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF ME. O.o Inordinately. Like, base fear. More than Seishirou, which is saying something. Tokyo Babylon Seishirou, mind you, not his weenie TRC counterpart.)
Moving along, I actually prefer the real Syaoran to the clone one, which is ironic considering that you spend most of the Tsubasa manga getting to KNOW the clone one, and while the two are pretty similar in disposition, the real Syaoran just...I dunno, his worldliness and his bizarre maturity and everything else just makes me want to squish him to my bosom. ^___^
ALSO, YES, I'M MADLY IN LOVE WITH KUROGANE. END SENTENCE. My favorite scene with him was probably the one in Nihon country, this one, because it was just so brusque and Kurogane and they finally addressed that "true meaning of strength" issue that CLAMP had been successfully dodging for 160+ chapters. Eeeee.
Anyway, I've gone on enough about this, and I've got work to do (*at work, wut*), so it's time to cut this short. I'M SURE YOU'RE ALL SADDENED. /sarcasm Thoughts, arguments, general squeeage and/or fic requests in the comments, y0.
Also, I'm sure some of you have noticed from my "current music" section, but, HOLY GOD THERE IS A PERSONA ANIME. There's only 4 episodes out, which I'm waiting to watch until the series progresses a little further because if it's Persona than that means epic hair-pulling cliffhangers at the end of every episode and I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet. ;___; Still! Persona! It has a vaguely "Innocent Sin" feel about it what with the character designs and the older hot-ass police brother and everything, but we'll see.
[EDIT]: Oh boo Persona anime is just a sequel to Persona 3. I fucking HATED Persona 3. Blah. Shit is gay. Oh well, I can still dream.