obligatory august post/jumble of miscellany
Honestly I feel like I've been totally useless this year -- have been so busy juggling various life crap that I haven't been able to get any "real" work done, much less anything fannish.
So this is a list of stuff I may or may not make a more cohesive post on at some point:
1. The Phryne Fisher series. (Burned through almost all 20 books in 3-4 months. Probably could have finished faster but I'm trying to savor the remaining few I have. :P) Two quick and easy ways to sum up the series though: "female James Bond", and "fun & frothy Australian flapper mysteries". Great relaxing reading, which is why I went through them so fast. I really want to talk about this one in more detail, but too lazy.
2. Andrea K. Host. Indie SFF writer. A post that is about two years overdue, but I keep putting it off, who knows if I'll ever get around to it at this point.
3. Mongol, the Genghis Khan movie from 2007. LOVED it. It deserves a good post, but.... lazy.
4. Soukou no Strain: circa 06-07. A Little Princess... with mechs and extremely sadistic storytelling (now you all know I don't mind sadistic storytelling but this one was rather anvilly). Or, "girls with brother complexes vs. dude with a major sister complex." Watched it a few months ago, enjoyed it, but found it deeply flawed. (Didn't buy the central mystery at all as it basically sets up a contrived moral/ethical dilemma that undermines whatever serious points the series might have otherwise been making.) One of the few examples of time dilation in fiction I actually like though.
5. Jormungand. I've posted on Jormungand already but wow that ending really was the kicker, by which I mean it is stunning and amazing and wrong but amazing precisely because of that. Not sure I can sort out all my feelings on it even now, months later, but like. best female villain protagonist ever?
6. Still casually gaming: I still owe some Vindictus screenshots and Age of Wushu blather. AoW is really not casual gamer-friendly and the translation is utter shit (like I said during beta), and yet I adore so much of what it does/tries to do and it's sandboxy enough that I enjoy it anyway despite not being a PVP fan. The game draws from all sorts of wuxia influences, but primarily from Jin Yong's Condor trilogy...
Vindictus, oddly enough, IS casual-friendly. And though I'm usually not a dungeon crawler fan either (SANDBOX PLS**) I haven't adored an MMO this much since Atlantica Online (which I played before they moved to Nexon*, ironically). So.
* bitch all you want about them, they're still the only MMO company that has ever successfully convinced me to part with my money D:
** Mabinogi 2, which is still in dev alas, is rumored to basically be sandbox Vindictus?? If so COUNT ME IN. Though the only thing that makes me sad about Vindi is gender-locked classes -- but you have no idea how much I appreciate Vindi's equal opportunity fanservice. Hehe.
I did at one point this year try Ragnarok 2 also but got bored pretty quickly because I guess the more complex/organic combat systems of Vindictus/Mabinogi/Age of Wushu have spoiled me now for anything lesser.
7. Red Data Girl -- enjoyed the heck out of it but thought the ending was rushed. I had stuff to say when I first finished but don't really feel like saying it anymore LOL
8. Arakawa Hiromu (FMA, Silver Spoon) does Heroic Legend of Arslan: SQUEE. Although Yoshitaka Amano's character designs and the OVA characterizations will always reign first in my heart. :P (And I wish she'd made Dariun darker-skinned. He's described as such in the novels [up to interpretation whether this is a "tan" or not though], and it's not like she can't or hasn't done major dark-skinned characters before: ahem Scar?? But oh well)
9. Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou (2013 j-drama, also manga, adapted from novels): OMG antique bookstore mysteries with an AWESOME protag pair and surprisingly strong writing. <333333 Watched the drama, LOVED the girl. Think the guy was sweeter in the manga (barely any scanlations out tho), but he's not bad in the drama either. This deserves a better post from me but all you're getting out of me right now is SQUEEEE <3333
10. Soul Eater ended/is ending (one more chapter I think). The plot is a trainwreck, but somehow it still works because it hits all the right emotional beats....????? IDEK
Bonus: I haven't watched ANY of the major geek movies this year (when have I ever) and am not caught up on TITAN at all. Whatever. :P
comments at the original Dreamwidth post
So this is a list of stuff I may or may not make a more cohesive post on at some point:
1. The Phryne Fisher series. (Burned through almost all 20 books in 3-4 months. Probably could have finished faster but I'm trying to savor the remaining few I have. :P) Two quick and easy ways to sum up the series though: "female James Bond", and "fun & frothy Australian flapper mysteries". Great relaxing reading, which is why I went through them so fast. I really want to talk about this one in more detail, but too lazy.
2. Andrea K. Host. Indie SFF writer. A post that is about two years overdue, but I keep putting it off, who knows if I'll ever get around to it at this point.
3. Mongol, the Genghis Khan movie from 2007. LOVED it. It deserves a good post, but.... lazy.
4. Soukou no Strain: circa 06-07. A Little Princess... with mechs and extremely sadistic storytelling (now you all know I don't mind sadistic storytelling but this one was rather anvilly). Or, "girls with brother complexes vs. dude with a major sister complex." Watched it a few months ago, enjoyed it, but found it deeply flawed. (Didn't buy the central mystery at all as it basically sets up a contrived moral/ethical dilemma that undermines whatever serious points the series might have otherwise been making.) One of the few examples of time dilation in fiction I actually like though.
5. Jormungand. I've posted on Jormungand already but wow that ending really was the kicker, by which I mean it is stunning and amazing and wrong but amazing precisely because of that. Not sure I can sort out all my feelings on it even now, months later, but like. best female villain protagonist ever?
6. Still casually gaming: I still owe some Vindictus screenshots and Age of Wushu blather. AoW is really not casual gamer-friendly and the translation is utter shit (like I said during beta), and yet I adore so much of what it does/tries to do and it's sandboxy enough that I enjoy it anyway despite not being a PVP fan. The game draws from all sorts of wuxia influences, but primarily from Jin Yong's Condor trilogy...
Vindictus, oddly enough, IS casual-friendly. And though I'm usually not a dungeon crawler fan either (SANDBOX PLS**) I haven't adored an MMO this much since Atlantica Online (which I played before they moved to Nexon*, ironically). So.
* bitch all you want about them, they're still the only MMO company that has ever successfully convinced me to part with my money D:
** Mabinogi 2, which is still in dev alas, is rumored to basically be sandbox Vindictus?? If so COUNT ME IN. Though the only thing that makes me sad about Vindi is gender-locked classes -- but you have no idea how much I appreciate Vindi's equal opportunity fanservice. Hehe.
I did at one point this year try Ragnarok 2 also but got bored pretty quickly because I guess the more complex/organic combat systems of Vindictus/Mabinogi/Age of Wushu have spoiled me now for anything lesser.
7. Red Data Girl -- enjoyed the heck out of it but thought the ending was rushed. I had stuff to say when I first finished but don't really feel like saying it anymore LOL
8. Arakawa Hiromu (FMA, Silver Spoon) does Heroic Legend of Arslan: SQUEE. Although Yoshitaka Amano's character designs and the OVA characterizations will always reign first in my heart. :P (And I wish she'd made Dariun darker-skinned. He's described as such in the novels [up to interpretation whether this is a "tan" or not though], and it's not like she can't or hasn't done major dark-skinned characters before: ahem Scar?? But oh well)
9. Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou (2013 j-drama, also manga, adapted from novels): OMG antique bookstore mysteries with an AWESOME protag pair and surprisingly strong writing. <333333 Watched the drama, LOVED the girl. Think the guy was sweeter in the manga (barely any scanlations out tho), but he's not bad in the drama either. This deserves a better post from me but all you're getting out of me right now is SQUEEEE <3333
10. Soul Eater ended/is ending (one more chapter I think). The plot is a trainwreck, but somehow it still works because it hits all the right emotional beats....????? IDEK
Bonus: I haven't watched ANY of the major geek movies this year (when have I ever) and am not caught up on TITAN at all. Whatever. :P
comments at the original Dreamwidth post