For the past couple of years, birthday present money from my parents has gone toward funding some sort of life necessity. This year, however, that wasn't the case and I actually got a couple of birthday presents in the form of manga, Blade of the Immortal vol. 26 and House of Five Leaves vol. 8 ( Read more... )

I just did a quick skim through the scanlation of Blade of the Immortal, volume 28 and can report it's made of win. It will be a while before it's released officially in English, but it's something to look forward to. It's basically one great catalog of character-interaction dramedy beats, and it has the awesomest Manji & Makie pic ever ( Read more... )

Roundup: Personal Reflections (not Reviews) on Reading and Viewing I've Managed to Do:
* Memory and Dream (Charles de Lint)
* V for Vendetta (graphic novel)
* Blade of the Immortal, vol. 23
* Rango (movie)

Memory and Dream is an interesting test case for my responses as a reader. It's a thoroughly good book. It has well-developed characters; a ( Read more... )

"The Raskolnikovian Anotsu"

I figured I should follow up my Makie essay with an Anotsu essay, probably the first of a series. Here, I'll argue that Anotsu is a spiritual cousin of Ivan Karamazov (The Brothers Karamazov) and Rodion Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment). These are all men whose passionately defended philosophy of defying traditional ( Read more... )

"In Defense of Makie"

As I have been familiarizing myself with Blade of the Immortal fandom, the friendliness and intelligence of which I really admire, I have noticed a running strain of dislike for Makie. Since I love her dearly, I wanted to respond with a manifesto on her awesomeness. Now, I'm happy to say that Makie does not seem to be hated ( Read more... )

Simultaneously reading Blade of the Immortal and watching House of Five Leaves has prompted me to write one of the shortest crossovers in history. Here 'tis. (I disclaim everything.) Essentially no spoilers but behind a cut just in case. Rated G.

( A Very Frightening Encounter )

"Anotsu/Makie: One of Those Love Stories"I'll preface this post with an apology as I'm about to commit the error of writing meta about a series I don't know very intimately yet. Having been firmly schooled over my early misapprehensions about Mirage of Blaze, I'll approach Blade of the Immortal with a healthy degree of disclaiming: everything I'm ( Read more... )

I need to do an update, so here is some stuff.

* I finish reading Pale Fire. Pale Fire is to the Russian Revolution as Slaughterhouse 5 is to the firebombing of Dresden.

* Speaking of getting unstuck in time, I also watched The Fountain, which is a very good and interesting movie about coping with death. And very pretty and a bit historical ( Read more... )

I can't tell you how happy I am to have found an anime that really pleases me. It's been a long time since I've come across one that's more than diverting. The only real problem with Blade of the Immortal is that it's one of these non-ending anime and is, in general, too short. It makes me want to read the manga, though my apprehension of ( Read more... )