jumble (X, Gravitation, and sitcoms, of all things O_o)
Next month is going to be brutal for manga releases, esp. if Furuba 12 turns up ahead of schedule. Kenshin, Death Note, Basara, Monster (assuming vol. 1 turns up between now and then), *and* Hot Gimmick are all slated. How will I ever survive? ^^ (And when did I start buying only Viz properties, Furuba notwithstanding? It's a miracle their X butchery didn't scare me off the company entirely.)
Rewatched the first seven eps. of X tv over the weekend, and I'm enjoying it far more than I'd expected. (Added icons accordingly, and yes, I know this one's from Tsubasa. ^^) But then, I haven't seen it since I actually got into the series (good job, brain), and when push comes to shove I'm still a sucker for seeing characters I love in motion, even with Chipmunk!Sorata with his one outfit. The girl decided to give it a try, which is kind of impressive since a) I inflicted the movie on her last summer and b) she tried the manga and didn't get into it after five or six volumes.
The translation isn't great--it's yet another case of the honorifics being dropped entirely, which always bugs me--but it's far above the manga translation. Sora's habit of addressing Arashi as 'neechan is one I'm glad I'll never have to make an executive decision on, though--I use it untranslated when I write him, but even if the honorifics were left in the translation I can see why that one might get glossed over, unless there was a time-out for cultural notes. A no-win situation. -_- In the manga it *could* have been left alone with a translator's note, but I can live with their 'babe' (if they'd only used it consistently, instead of having him use her given name when he said no such thing), but the anime's 'missie' bugs the hell out of me. It's just . . . it sounds icky and sort of condescending, *and* they used the same translation when he addressed Yuzuriha as 'jouchan. Slackers.
I'm really, really liking Fuma. He's such a sweetheart. *^^*
And I love Sorata and Yuuto's fight early on. Unless I'm totally blanking on later events in this version, it'll remain my favorite fight for the whole series. They're just having such *fun* with it (and flirting like crazy, as jonathlee pointed out happily. It really is pretty adorable). I can't quite bring myself to dislike Yuuto, even having seen his Tarot card. o_o
Then there's episode seven. I like Satsuki just fine, but I'm at a total loss as to why she gets a whole episode to herself. The inclusion of various backstories into the actual series (instead of as standalone parts at the end of each manga volume) was mostly well-done; could the writing staff really not think of a way to fill us in on her without taking a whole episode out that does almost nothing for the series as a whole? It's a 24-ep. block, which isn't remotely enough time for this story even without rambling diversions. It breaks the series' flow pretty badly.
***
When I first moved home, I got all excited about the amount of manga my library has available. And then I kind of forgot, after the initial binge. Having just remembered, I started ordering things again--accidentally got vol. 5 of Samurai Deeper Kyo again (it was the last one I'd read), but the refresher wasn't a bad idea. And I didn't forget Battle Royale, but I'd gone through everything they had; now they've got 9-12 either in the system or on order, so I'm waiting for those.
Getting three volumes all at once, for *anything*, is an accomplishment when dealing with the library. Sadly, vol. 8 of Gravitation is as high as they go with the series right now. -_- (Which reminds me, they've also only got eight volumes of Video Girl AI listed. Grr.) I'm not anywhere enough into this to go buy it, but I'm enjoying it. Shuichi is really adorable, and I like watching Yuki softening up toward him. Still reserving judgement on what kind of guy Yuki actually is, though. I'm *guessing* emotionally damaged enough that he's somewhat non-functional, and the backstory so far seems to support that . . . but Murakami's sidebar notes make it sound like she's totally making things up as she goes along. The story's hanging together pretty well despite that approach, but it makes me cautious of making assumptions . . .
Just ordered a stack of Samurai Deeper Kyo (volumes I haven't read, this time), and there's some Fake waiting to be picked up. ^^ And the library has the Fake anime as well; no idea if it's any good or not.
***
I really don't watch domestic tv. Joss' stuff was an exception that I caved for, mainly because Servo left season one of Buffy on our coffee table and said he wasn't taking it back until we watched it. Now I keep hearing about other shows that might actually be, unthinkably, *good*. Might be obliged to download a few eps. here and there to see. But it's the actor-love that made me download sitcoms last week. *twitches* And now I'm reminded of why I don't watch sitcoms. -_- I've seen one ep. each of How I Met Your Mother (to see Alyson Hannigan) and Kitchen Confidential (for Nicholas Brendon).
. . . there's not a whole lot to say. They're very different shows, and neither of them worked for me at all. I was talking about them with the girl, and saying that I think Brendon's a solid actor without having a huge range--I really liked him on Buffy, and I'm not saying he didn't get to stretch his acting muscles as Xander, because he did, and he did good work. But the girl mentioned that she sees him as more of a performer than an actor, that he's very comfortable doing what he does in front of the camera, and it's not the same as being an incredible actor (I'm paraphrasing her heavily here). His new show isn't stretching him far out of that mold at all, and it was nice to see him, but I'm not sticking with it.
Alyson Hannigan, on the other hand, is high on my list of kickass actors. She did some gorgeous work as Willow even when they didn't give her amazing material to work with, and when they did . . . yeah. I love her to pieces. Any actor who can perform convincingly against him/herself has my respect. Brent Spiner did it brilliantly on Star Trek: TNG, and Leonardo DiCaprio's ability to do it in The Man in the Iron Mask would have convinced me that he's an actual actor even if I hadn't seen him in Basketball Diaries, which was fabulous. (I don't know how he got his reputation as a Hollywood pretty boy, and dismissed as a serious actor. He's NOT pretty, and he does really good work. I'm at a total loss.)
I know Hannigan had the whole American Pie thing, and I vaguely remember seeing the first movie. My impression, and I may be completely wrong since I don't pay much attention to Hollywood at all, is that that franchise had more to do with making her reputation than her work on Buffy did. But she's completely wasted on a sitcom. She did solid work on what seemed like a perfectly average sitcom, and it was almost physically painful to watch. Just . . . no. And the thing that scares me is that I heard she was signed for a different show a while ago and left because it wasn't giving her enough interesting material. I'm not denying that she had some fun lines in this one--best lines in the show--but I'm scared to think of what the *other* show's writing must be like.
Maybe her show gets better, and it *looks* like she's a recurring character, possibly a regular. (Ok, the IMDb entry gives her third billing, so that's promising.) But I don't think I have the heart to stick with it.
***
This got really long, and it may be too late now to be able to count tonight as a step on the path toward a normal sleep cycle. Nothing for it now, I guess . . .
Rewatched the first seven eps. of X tv over the weekend, and I'm enjoying it far more than I'd expected. (Added icons accordingly, and yes, I know this one's from Tsubasa. ^^) But then, I haven't seen it since I actually got into the series (good job, brain), and when push comes to shove I'm still a sucker for seeing characters I love in motion, even with Chipmunk!Sorata with his one outfit. The girl decided to give it a try, which is kind of impressive since a) I inflicted the movie on her last summer and b) she tried the manga and didn't get into it after five or six volumes.
The translation isn't great--it's yet another case of the honorifics being dropped entirely, which always bugs me--but it's far above the manga translation. Sora's habit of addressing Arashi as 'neechan is one I'm glad I'll never have to make an executive decision on, though--I use it untranslated when I write him, but even if the honorifics were left in the translation I can see why that one might get glossed over, unless there was a time-out for cultural notes. A no-win situation. -_- In the manga it *could* have been left alone with a translator's note, but I can live with their 'babe' (if they'd only used it consistently, instead of having him use her given name when he said no such thing), but the anime's 'missie' bugs the hell out of me. It's just . . . it sounds icky and sort of condescending, *and* they used the same translation when he addressed Yuzuriha as 'jouchan. Slackers.
I'm really, really liking Fuma. He's such a sweetheart. *^^*
And I love Sorata and Yuuto's fight early on. Unless I'm totally blanking on later events in this version, it'll remain my favorite fight for the whole series. They're just having such *fun* with it (and flirting like crazy, as jonathlee pointed out happily. It really is pretty adorable). I can't quite bring myself to dislike Yuuto, even having seen his Tarot card. o_o
Then there's episode seven. I like Satsuki just fine, but I'm at a total loss as to why she gets a whole episode to herself. The inclusion of various backstories into the actual series (instead of as standalone parts at the end of each manga volume) was mostly well-done; could the writing staff really not think of a way to fill us in on her without taking a whole episode out that does almost nothing for the series as a whole? It's a 24-ep. block, which isn't remotely enough time for this story even without rambling diversions. It breaks the series' flow pretty badly.
***
When I first moved home, I got all excited about the amount of manga my library has available. And then I kind of forgot, after the initial binge. Having just remembered, I started ordering things again--accidentally got vol. 5 of Samurai Deeper Kyo again (it was the last one I'd read), but the refresher wasn't a bad idea. And I didn't forget Battle Royale, but I'd gone through everything they had; now they've got 9-12 either in the system or on order, so I'm waiting for those.
Getting three volumes all at once, for *anything*, is an accomplishment when dealing with the library. Sadly, vol. 8 of Gravitation is as high as they go with the series right now. -_- (Which reminds me, they've also only got eight volumes of Video Girl AI listed. Grr.) I'm not anywhere enough into this to go buy it, but I'm enjoying it. Shuichi is really adorable, and I like watching Yuki softening up toward him. Still reserving judgement on what kind of guy Yuki actually is, though. I'm *guessing* emotionally damaged enough that he's somewhat non-functional, and the backstory so far seems to support that . . . but Murakami's sidebar notes make it sound like she's totally making things up as she goes along. The story's hanging together pretty well despite that approach, but it makes me cautious of making assumptions . . .
Just ordered a stack of Samurai Deeper Kyo (volumes I haven't read, this time), and there's some Fake waiting to be picked up. ^^ And the library has the Fake anime as well; no idea if it's any good or not.
***
I really don't watch domestic tv. Joss' stuff was an exception that I caved for, mainly because Servo left season one of Buffy on our coffee table and said he wasn't taking it back until we watched it. Now I keep hearing about other shows that might actually be, unthinkably, *good*. Might be obliged to download a few eps. here and there to see. But it's the actor-love that made me download sitcoms last week. *twitches* And now I'm reminded of why I don't watch sitcoms. -_- I've seen one ep. each of How I Met Your Mother (to see Alyson Hannigan) and Kitchen Confidential (for Nicholas Brendon).
. . . there's not a whole lot to say. They're very different shows, and neither of them worked for me at all. I was talking about them with the girl, and saying that I think Brendon's a solid actor without having a huge range--I really liked him on Buffy, and I'm not saying he didn't get to stretch his acting muscles as Xander, because he did, and he did good work. But the girl mentioned that she sees him as more of a performer than an actor, that he's very comfortable doing what he does in front of the camera, and it's not the same as being an incredible actor (I'm paraphrasing her heavily here). His new show isn't stretching him far out of that mold at all, and it was nice to see him, but I'm not sticking with it.
Alyson Hannigan, on the other hand, is high on my list of kickass actors. She did some gorgeous work as Willow even when they didn't give her amazing material to work with, and when they did . . . yeah. I love her to pieces. Any actor who can perform convincingly against him/herself has my respect. Brent Spiner did it brilliantly on Star Trek: TNG, and Leonardo DiCaprio's ability to do it in The Man in the Iron Mask would have convinced me that he's an actual actor even if I hadn't seen him in Basketball Diaries, which was fabulous. (I don't know how he got his reputation as a Hollywood pretty boy, and dismissed as a serious actor. He's NOT pretty, and he does really good work. I'm at a total loss.)
I know Hannigan had the whole American Pie thing, and I vaguely remember seeing the first movie. My impression, and I may be completely wrong since I don't pay much attention to Hollywood at all, is that that franchise had more to do with making her reputation than her work on Buffy did. But she's completely wasted on a sitcom. She did solid work on what seemed like a perfectly average sitcom, and it was almost physically painful to watch. Just . . . no. And the thing that scares me is that I heard she was signed for a different show a while ago and left because it wasn't giving her enough interesting material. I'm not denying that she had some fun lines in this one--best lines in the show--but I'm scared to think of what the *other* show's writing must be like.
Maybe her show gets better, and it *looks* like she's a recurring character, possibly a regular. (Ok, the IMDb entry gives her third billing, so that's promising.) But I don't think I have the heart to stick with it.
***
This got really long, and it may be too late now to be able to count tonight as a step on the path toward a normal sleep cycle. Nothing for it now, I guess . . .