By the Power of Grayskull!
Gah, my journal looks like a Valentine's Day card exploded. I think I need to stop experimenting with color schemes.
Last week, collarnojutsu came up to visit. She flew into Chicago (at my suggestion), so after I picked her up at the airport, we went to Sanseido (formerly Asahiya) and the aquarium. Sanseido was sort of under construction, so it was TINY. (I still managed to get quite a stack, mostly catching up on some shounen and shoujo series I've fallen behind on.) We had a good time on Saturday, but I'm never suggesting that a friend fly into Chicago again, because driving down there twice in less than a week (during construction season, no less) is kind of a pain.
Other than that, collarnojutsu amused herself by raiding my bookshelf, we read through some G-Defend summaries (another successful convert!), and we watched a bunch of porn culturally enriching animation. Stuff we watched:
Papa to Kiss in the Dark (two episodes) - I actually like the anime better than the novels, I think, because the anime is really funny and cute, while the novels are just one bad sex scene after another. What I hate about both versions (less obvious in the anime because we only get the story from the first book) is that not only is everybody and his brother after Mira, but Mira is absolutely AWFUL at fending these potential suitors off, and constantly ends up getting molested somehow. I gave up on the books after (I think) the second one, but I may give the series another shot because I was told that the secondary couple is more likable.
Okane ga Nai (one of three episodes) - Oh dear. Well, having read the manga, I expected this to be bad, but...yeah, it was awful. The designs are hideous and the characters are just as annoying as they are in the manga. The technicolor fingering, while amusing, was probably not enough of a reason to watch it. I think the only good thing I have to say about it was that Fukuyama Jun's Ayase didn't sound anything like Kaito, so I didn't get weirded out like I did while watching Gakuen Heaven.
Fuyu no Semi (two of three episodes) - I'm not a big fan of this story, but the anime creators really did a good job with this. They added a lot of historical detail and such to flesh out the manga story, and it made it a bit easier for me to follow what was going on. (My only knowledge of this era of Japanese history comes from Kenshin, so I really didn't get a lot of the political references in the manga.) I still think they should have released it as one 90 minute OAV, though, to give it more of a movie feel.
Also, we went to see Shaun of the Police Hot Fuzz, which was hilarious (if gorier than expected). Tonight I'm going to Spiderman with mereflair; hope it's not disappointing. (I've purposely avoided all information about this movie. I haven't read any reviews, even.)
In other news, Pumpkin has made himself totally at home here. We kept him quarantined in the garage for a little over a week, and then started letting him out. And in (to our house, I mean). He's doing okay with the other cats...they don't like him (especially Choco), but they tolerate him. Wednesday hasn't interacted with him much, so we're not really sure how that's going to go. We gave him a bath on Saturday, and the difference is absolutely amazing. (By the time we were done, the bathwater was BLACK.) I don't think any of us realized just how dirty he was. He's really soft and fluffy now. Unfortunately, he's still a little wild. Not in the way he acts with us, but in the way he'll disappear for several hours and come back splattered with blood. Blood as in 返り血. If I'd known he was going to be like this, I would have named him Blood. I mean, he even has long blond hair (kind of)...it's perfect! ...On the other hand, maybe it's just as well I didn't, because then I would have wanted to get another smaller cat, name him Ishuca, and torment him by dying his fur an outrageous red color.
Last week, collarnojutsu came up to visit. She flew into Chicago (at my suggestion), so after I picked her up at the airport, we went to Sanseido (formerly Asahiya) and the aquarium. Sanseido was sort of under construction, so it was TINY. (I still managed to get quite a stack, mostly catching up on some shounen and shoujo series I've fallen behind on.) We had a good time on Saturday, but I'm never suggesting that a friend fly into Chicago again, because driving down there twice in less than a week (during construction season, no less) is kind of a pain.
Other than that, collarnojutsu amused herself by raiding my bookshelf, we read through some G-Defend summaries (another successful convert!), and we watched a bunch of porn culturally enriching animation. Stuff we watched:
Papa to Kiss in the Dark (two episodes) - I actually like the anime better than the novels, I think, because the anime is really funny and cute, while the novels are just one bad sex scene after another. What I hate about both versions (less obvious in the anime because we only get the story from the first book) is that not only is everybody and his brother after Mira, but Mira is absolutely AWFUL at fending these potential suitors off, and constantly ends up getting molested somehow. I gave up on the books after (I think) the second one, but I may give the series another shot because I was told that the secondary couple is more likable.
Okane ga Nai (one of three episodes) - Oh dear. Well, having read the manga, I expected this to be bad, but...yeah, it was awful. The designs are hideous and the characters are just as annoying as they are in the manga. The technicolor fingering, while amusing, was probably not enough of a reason to watch it. I think the only good thing I have to say about it was that Fukuyama Jun's Ayase didn't sound anything like Kaito, so I didn't get weirded out like I did while watching Gakuen Heaven.
Fuyu no Semi (two of three episodes) - I'm not a big fan of this story, but the anime creators really did a good job with this. They added a lot of historical detail and such to flesh out the manga story, and it made it a bit easier for me to follow what was going on. (My only knowledge of this era of Japanese history comes from Kenshin, so I really didn't get a lot of the political references in the manga.) I still think they should have released it as one 90 minute OAV, though, to give it more of a movie feel.
Also, we went to see Shaun of the Police Hot Fuzz, which was hilarious (if gorier than expected). Tonight I'm going to Spiderman with mereflair; hope it's not disappointing. (I've purposely avoided all information about this movie. I haven't read any reviews, even.)
In other news, Pumpkin has made himself totally at home here. We kept him quarantined in the garage for a little over a week, and then started letting him out. And in (to our house, I mean). He's doing okay with the other cats...they don't like him (especially Choco), but they tolerate him. Wednesday hasn't interacted with him much, so we're not really sure how that's going to go. We gave him a bath on Saturday, and the difference is absolutely amazing. (By the time we were done, the bathwater was BLACK.) I don't think any of us realized just how dirty he was. He's really soft and fluffy now. Unfortunately, he's still a little wild. Not in the way he acts with us, but in the way he'll disappear for several hours and come back splattered with blood. Blood as in 返り血. If I'd known he was going to be like this, I would have named him Blood. I mean, he even has long blond hair (kind of)...it's perfect! ...On the other hand, maybe it's just as well I didn't, because then I would have wanted to get another smaller cat, name him Ishuca, and torment him by dying his fur an outrageous red color.