Oh no Ono Natsume matsuri
Saraiya Goyou (House of Five Leaves): now up to episode 6, out of 12, so it seems reasonable to expect that one will get a bit of backstory on Otake and a bit more on Yaichi and then a wrap up that doesn't, since the manga is ongoing. There is Plot too, but it slips under the radar as the conclusions tend toward anticlimatic: against genre expectation, criminal endeavours go off without a hitch, no earth-shattering lessons are learnt, and the targets are not seen again. XD; Still not sure how to read Masa and Yaichi's interaction if it's not meant to be BL. Masa doesn't strike me as moé - not my type - but the series as a whole feels keyed to his emotional landscape, balanced between the understated portrait-of-a-social-network warmth Ono does so well and a throat-closing loneliness. It's the same sense of personality-fueled isolation Evangelion made sturm und drang of; here it's played down Ozu-style, like the warmth. Masa, thankfully, adds neither self-loathing nor passive aggression to the mix... Yaichi definitely strikes me as moé, not to mention goes about ostentatiously cloaked in mystery, but as this is Ono I really can't predict what's up with him. Sometimes her people just have odd personalities. XD;
Lighting is much relied on to set the mood; so is non-diegetic sound. The descriptive that lingers in the mind is "crepuscular".
Gente: I did get immersed it in eventually, as one does - thinking, boy does it make one feel ancient or what, to be relating to this cast of divorced middle-aged career women (all of whom are gorgeous in that well-preserved European way) and grandfatherly restauranteurs. Of all of Natsume's universes, this is the one most predicated on simply liking the characters as people enough to want to see them through the mundane incidents of daily existence. It's gossiping about friends and neighbours and exes over a glass of Chianti. As such I come away vaguely worried about the non-recurring characters introduced in oneshots, like the couple where the husband was cheating (is he honestly going to stop?) or the domestic-violence victim (isn't it a terrible idea for her to return with him to his country, where she'd just be more isolated?). I have to say, though, I am starving for good Italian now. Although this may be because I've been eating a lot of reconstituted seaweed: I like it a lot and am cooking only for me so I can eat anything I like in whatever quantity, but a portion contains approximately 5 calories so it fools you for about half an hour that you've eaten. =_= Really you've swallowed a bit of fiber and 95% soaking water, but so much more delicious than celery.
Later I was reading this Neville/Draco fic by helenish (recced by elfiepike) and it just wouldn't appear in my head as other than Ono Natsume art. orz|| One supposes she does a good line in pale boys in aprons and understated domestic angst.
Lighting is much relied on to set the mood; so is non-diegetic sound. The descriptive that lingers in the mind is "crepuscular".
Gente: I did get immersed it in eventually, as one does - thinking, boy does it make one feel ancient or what, to be relating to this cast of divorced middle-aged career women (all of whom are gorgeous in that well-preserved European way) and grandfatherly restauranteurs. Of all of Natsume's universes, this is the one most predicated on simply liking the characters as people enough to want to see them through the mundane incidents of daily existence. It's gossiping about friends and neighbours and exes over a glass of Chianti. As such I come away vaguely worried about the non-recurring characters introduced in oneshots, like the couple where the husband was cheating (is he honestly going to stop?) or the domestic-violence victim (isn't it a terrible idea for her to return with him to his country, where she'd just be more isolated?). I have to say, though, I am starving for good Italian now. Although this may be because I've been eating a lot of reconstituted seaweed: I like it a lot and am cooking only for me so I can eat anything I like in whatever quantity, but a portion contains approximately 5 calories so it fools you for about half an hour that you've eaten. =_= Really you've swallowed a bit of fiber and 95% soaking water, but so much more delicious than celery.
Later I was reading this Neville/Draco fic by helenish (recced by elfiepike) and it just wouldn't appear in my head as other than Ono Natsume art. orz|| One supposes she does a good line in pale boys in aprons and understated domestic angst.