What have you been watching/reading/playing lately?
I was going to make some sort of post about all the rl stuff going on, and will still make that post, but this is not that post.
Instead, I want to talk about manga and anime and video games!
I've been catching up somewhat on my anime and manga. Finally watched Attack on Titan! It was excellent, to no great surprise given how many people had recommended it to me. Ahhh, but now I'm stuck between waiting for a second season of the anime or catching up with the manga!
Also kinda of detoured on my way there to watching Skip Beat! and reading that manga. Attack on Titan being good was no shock, but I was genuinely surprised by how good Skip Beat was! Or maybe there'd been a massive deficiency of shoujo in my fiction diet. In any case, it took the most stereotypical of eye-rolling fantasy-fulfilling pop idol shoujo tropes and turned it completely on its head. Kyoko is such a great protagonist, although admittedly in the later volumes of the manga they pushed the wilful naivete factor a little too hard... even if they have justified it quite well in Kyoko's vehement, self-preserving denial. And perhaps it resonates a little with me too because people so vastly underestimate the motivational power of spite. :D
In any case, though it has a slightly slow start, once it gets rolling - awesome. All of the acting arcs are surprisingly kick-ass and for all the occasional silliness it has some great depth to it. The greatest thing about it, though, is that I can think of no other manga that better exemplifies the adage that 'the very best revenge is living well'. I kind of want more fanfic of it, this WIP stole my heart because high school reunions.
Also read all that's available of xXxholic Rei. Yes, there is more xXxholic! I was surprised too! I was even more surprised when I started reading it and it appeared to be a massive ret-con of the entire ending of xXxholic. I can't figure out what's going on! Are these just side stories taking place earlier in the timeline? Yet even that doesn't seem to match up very well, since Doumeki has the egg yet they haven't swapped eyes by now. And there is the occasional panel, the occasional hint that something isn't quite right... is this all some massive delusion that Watanuki is trapped in? A part of me wants to be angry about it but I trust that CLAMP had something cool planned so will bide my time. If it is just more standalones, I'm okay with that too, since xXxholic's standalones were awesome. I should probably also get around to finishing reading Tsubasa Chronicles sometime to get the full story on that end.
ALSO, ALSO, KAGEROU DAYS. Oh man, I heard about the manga and anime for this, and have been following Jin's Kagerou Project (You may be familiar with this song) on and off for a while now, but went on a bender earlier this week when I discovered that Jin had been busy and there were a bunch of new songs! It's all so very cryptic but deliciously tragic, especially once you start putting together all the puzzle pieces. Can't wait for the anime, but here's the manga for anyone interested and a playlist of the subbed songs.
That's about it for anime/manga... as for video games, have settled nicely into Animal Crossing, though I have since also acquired Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers and Fire Emblem: Awakening so it's likely only a matter of weeks before the balance tilts into abandoning it in an new game's favour. Seriously though that game is like Tamagotchi meets the Sims, I get wracked with inexplicable guilt whenever I fail to tend to the town properly. Finally filled up my HHA Showcase though, some of the houses were really cool! Some are astoundingly thorough in their interior design, one neat house had set itself up like an arcade and a nightclub, another like a fully-realised Japanese onsen... then there was one house, completely paid off with full-sized rooms and modified exterior... entirely filled with cyclomattus stags. And nothing but cyclomattus stags. In Every. Single. Room.
If they wanted to creep visitors out, they succeeded.
So that's my pop-culture intake of late. Anyone else want to fangirl/discuss any of these things?! I am tragically short of people to flail over some of this with lately.
Oh, yes! One more thing. If you haven't seen it, everyone ought to go see Gravity. It's a supremely well-made film, and if you're concerned about the horror based on the trailer, it's actually more of an action/suspense flick. It has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, do you know how crazy that is?! It needs to be seen on the big screen. A space movie that isn't sci-fi! Kessler Syndrome, guys, a totally real thing. Reminded me fondly of Planetes.
Instead, I want to talk about manga and anime and video games!
I've been catching up somewhat on my anime and manga. Finally watched Attack on Titan! It was excellent, to no great surprise given how many people had recommended it to me. Ahhh, but now I'm stuck between waiting for a second season of the anime or catching up with the manga!
Also kinda of detoured on my way there to watching Skip Beat! and reading that manga. Attack on Titan being good was no shock, but I was genuinely surprised by how good Skip Beat was! Or maybe there'd been a massive deficiency of shoujo in my fiction diet. In any case, it took the most stereotypical of eye-rolling fantasy-fulfilling pop idol shoujo tropes and turned it completely on its head. Kyoko is such a great protagonist, although admittedly in the later volumes of the manga they pushed the wilful naivete factor a little too hard... even if they have justified it quite well in Kyoko's vehement, self-preserving denial. And perhaps it resonates a little with me too because people so vastly underestimate the motivational power of spite. :D
In any case, though it has a slightly slow start, once it gets rolling - awesome. All of the acting arcs are surprisingly kick-ass and for all the occasional silliness it has some great depth to it. The greatest thing about it, though, is that I can think of no other manga that better exemplifies the adage that 'the very best revenge is living well'. I kind of want more fanfic of it, this WIP stole my heart because high school reunions.
Also read all that's available of xXxholic Rei. Yes, there is more xXxholic! I was surprised too! I was even more surprised when I started reading it and it appeared to be a massive ret-con of the entire ending of xXxholic. I can't figure out what's going on! Are these just side stories taking place earlier in the timeline? Yet even that doesn't seem to match up very well, since Doumeki has the egg yet they haven't swapped eyes by now. And there is the occasional panel, the occasional hint that something isn't quite right... is this all some massive delusion that Watanuki is trapped in? A part of me wants to be angry about it but I trust that CLAMP had something cool planned so will bide my time. If it is just more standalones, I'm okay with that too, since xXxholic's standalones were awesome. I should probably also get around to finishing reading Tsubasa Chronicles sometime to get the full story on that end.
ALSO, ALSO, KAGEROU DAYS. Oh man, I heard about the manga and anime for this, and have been following Jin's Kagerou Project (You may be familiar with this song) on and off for a while now, but went on a bender earlier this week when I discovered that Jin had been busy and there were a bunch of new songs! It's all so very cryptic but deliciously tragic, especially once you start putting together all the puzzle pieces. Can't wait for the anime, but here's the manga for anyone interested and a playlist of the subbed songs.
That's about it for anime/manga... as for video games, have settled nicely into Animal Crossing, though I have since also acquired Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers and Fire Emblem: Awakening so it's likely only a matter of weeks before the balance tilts into abandoning it in an new game's favour. Seriously though that game is like Tamagotchi meets the Sims, I get wracked with inexplicable guilt whenever I fail to tend to the town properly. Finally filled up my HHA Showcase though, some of the houses were really cool! Some are astoundingly thorough in their interior design, one neat house had set itself up like an arcade and a nightclub, another like a fully-realised Japanese onsen... then there was one house, completely paid off with full-sized rooms and modified exterior... entirely filled with cyclomattus stags. And nothing but cyclomattus stags. In Every. Single. Room.
If they wanted to creep visitors out, they succeeded.
So that's my pop-culture intake of late. Anyone else want to fangirl/discuss any of these things?! I am tragically short of people to flail over some of this with lately.
Oh, yes! One more thing. If you haven't seen it, everyone ought to go see Gravity. It's a supremely well-made film, and if you're concerned about the horror based on the trailer, it's actually more of an action/suspense flick. It has a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, do you know how crazy that is?! It needs to be seen on the big screen. A space movie that isn't sci-fi! Kessler Syndrome, guys, a totally real thing. Reminded me fondly of Planetes.