Anime summer
I've been horrible about writing and keeping up with my WIP fic. As it is, I don't even know if I'll finish 
luxken27's drabble table I set up for myself. (I think I will, but "The Sickness" table I set up is going to fail.) I decided to just wait until I feel like writing again. I'm sure it will come back; it always does. But I just didn't have it in me this last month.
Instead, scribefigaro and I have been mainlining anime. And that's what I'm here to talk about. The good and the... well... gruesome. Some spoilers ahead:
We watched all of Puella Magi Madoka Magica in one evening. That may have been a mistake. Mostly because we were tired and a little wine drunk by the last episodes, so they didn't make as much sense to us as they should have. I read up on the series and it looks like I missed a lot of what was going on in the last two episodes. (Will rewatch them.) But still, we did get the gist of the show. I had been a little spoiled as to the mood and tenor of the show, which is one of the reasons we watched it. The other is because scribefigaro came across this AMV and loved it:
Overall, we enjoyed it. However, we thought it would be way darker than it ended up being. It was dark, but we were expecting Evangelion levels of fucked up-ness, and so this was a little too straightforward for that. But like I said, we should probably watch the last episodes again because shit goes down.
We are also currently watching Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan. scribefigaro LOVES it. I'm... not that into it. It's too violent for me I think. Which is weird because I was disappointed in the lack of darkness in Madoka. It was touch and go for us to watch after episode 6 or so. A few years ago, we watched an anime called Ga Rei Zero which started with a team of monster fighters that you get to know. You see some of their backgrounds and their relationships with one another. You get to like them. Then, by the end of the episode, they're all dead. The second episode starts a year or so prior to the events and episode one following another team and the series shows what led up to the events in episode 1, but we never see the original team and characters again. We HATED that anime. It was emotionally manipulative and exploitive (IMO). I was afraid SNK was going to do the same thing. (It didn't.) So it was touch-and-go for if we were going to continue watching. I even went online and spoiled myself to make sure we weren't wasting our time.
So we're continuing to watch, but I'm actively avoiding the fandom because I don't want too many spoilers (I know there's a manga). I'm also not really invested in the characters because the show is so brutal. I honestly feel the same way about the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Just not 100% for me, but the story is compelling.
Other than that, I've been watching Free!/Iwatobi Swim Club. I did try to resist this anime. It just looked to fan service-y and like it couldn't possibly have a plot worth anything. But it kept popping up on my tumblr dash enough that I got curious, so I checked it out. Oops. I kind of fell in love with it. Fan service? YES PLEASE!!! And it has an actual compelling plot. It's not world shattering or anything, just about a group of boys dealing with friendships through swimming, but it's heartwarming. I like it!
I actually have been seeking out the fandom for this show. They're CRAZY! And it entertains me nearly as much as the show does. I thought I might even dip my toes into yaoi shipping to see if it was for me. Turns out no, it isn't. Probably for a couple of reasons. First, the fanfic writers really don't much care about characterization so long as their OTP (or OT3) is together. So I don't like reading that. Also, there is a lemon-y thing I'm just really not into when it comes to two dudes (or any kind of pairing, really). Just not for me, and that one thing always seems to happen with two dudes. I also seem to like it more when there's a lady involved. At least one. :)
So, yeah. I am loving Free! I wait for it every week giggling and clapping my hands. I even force my poor husband to watch (he kind of likes it, but sighs heavily though the fan service parts). He's a good husband. :)
That's all for me for now. I just wanted to report on the actual fandom stuff I was doing. I'll start writing sometime, I swear!
luxken27's drabble table I set up for myself. (I think I will, but "The Sickness" table I set up is going to fail.) I decided to just wait until I feel like writing again. I'm sure it will come back; it always does. But I just didn't have it in me this last month.
Instead, scribefigaro and I have been mainlining anime. And that's what I'm here to talk about. The good and the... well... gruesome. Some spoilers ahead:
We watched all of Puella Magi Madoka Magica in one evening. That may have been a mistake. Mostly because we were tired and a little wine drunk by the last episodes, so they didn't make as much sense to us as they should have. I read up on the series and it looks like I missed a lot of what was going on in the last two episodes. (Will rewatch them.) But still, we did get the gist of the show. I had been a little spoiled as to the mood and tenor of the show, which is one of the reasons we watched it. The other is because scribefigaro came across this AMV and loved it:
Click to viewOverall, we enjoyed it. However, we thought it would be way darker than it ended up being. It was dark, but we were expecting Evangelion levels of fucked up-ness, and so this was a little too straightforward for that. But like I said, we should probably watch the last episodes again because shit goes down.
We are also currently watching Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan. scribefigaro LOVES it. I'm... not that into it. It's too violent for me I think. Which is weird because I was disappointed in the lack of darkness in Madoka. It was touch and go for us to watch after episode 6 or so. A few years ago, we watched an anime called Ga Rei Zero which started with a team of monster fighters that you get to know. You see some of their backgrounds and their relationships with one another. You get to like them. Then, by the end of the episode, they're all dead. The second episode starts a year or so prior to the events and episode one following another team and the series shows what led up to the events in episode 1, but we never see the original team and characters again. We HATED that anime. It was emotionally manipulative and exploitive (IMO). I was afraid SNK was going to do the same thing. (It didn't.) So it was touch-and-go for if we were going to continue watching. I even went online and spoiled myself to make sure we weren't wasting our time.
So we're continuing to watch, but I'm actively avoiding the fandom because I don't want too many spoilers (I know there's a manga). I'm also not really invested in the characters because the show is so brutal. I honestly feel the same way about the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Just not 100% for me, but the story is compelling.
Other than that, I've been watching Free!/Iwatobi Swim Club. I did try to resist this anime. It just looked to fan service-y and like it couldn't possibly have a plot worth anything. But it kept popping up on my tumblr dash enough that I got curious, so I checked it out. Oops. I kind of fell in love with it. Fan service? YES PLEASE!!! And it has an actual compelling plot. It's not world shattering or anything, just about a group of boys dealing with friendships through swimming, but it's heartwarming. I like it!
I actually have been seeking out the fandom for this show. They're CRAZY! And it entertains me nearly as much as the show does. I thought I might even dip my toes into yaoi shipping to see if it was for me. Turns out no, it isn't. Probably for a couple of reasons. First, the fanfic writers really don't much care about characterization so long as their OTP (or OT3) is together. So I don't like reading that. Also, there is a lemon-y thing I'm just really not into when it comes to two dudes (or any kind of pairing, really). Just not for me, and that one thing always seems to happen with two dudes. I also seem to like it more when there's a lady involved. At least one. :)
So, yeah. I am loving Free! I wait for it every week giggling and clapping my hands. I even force my poor husband to watch (he kind of likes it, but sighs heavily though the fan service parts). He's a good husband. :)
That's all for me for now. I just wanted to report on the actual fandom stuff I was doing. I'll start writing sometime, I swear!