Some nice surprises.
First of all, N, look here.
Wouldn't you like to just happen to be visiting a bookstore and find out Neil was doing a signing that day?
On the train this morning, I brought volume 3 of Challengers because I'm almost to the end of Wolf's Rain and I didn't want to see everyone die horribly first thing in the morning. Of all the Drama Queen manga I picked up at Otakon last year, Challengers is by far the best. Which is hilarious, because I saved it for last figuring it was going to be stupid boy-love fluff. In fact it's a gay love/coming out story that is painfully realistic--but not in an angsty way. It's told in such a way that you alternately cringe and laugh your ass off. You know me, I always give thumbs-up to love stories that are at least trying to be realistic while still telling a good story, and this one is probably the best yet. My favourite not-couple is the uke's violently homophobic niisan and his gay lab assitant, though the American couple slays me dead every time. I just found out the former have their own manga now (The Tyrant Falls in Love), which is dangerous knowledge, my friend. Must buy.
Back to Wolf's Rain, after watching part of my DVD and giving up, I was saving the manga for last (and probably returnable for store credit) on my bookshelf. But I picked it up this week and actually liked it quite a lot. Yes, it's nihilistic and overly angsty, but I can handle that in a two volume series. I might give the anime another chance. Not sure. Either way, Darcia cosplay is looking good to me at some point. <.< Hell, the reason I first picked up the series was I was always drawn to the Amano!Morpheus-looking guy on the front.
Heh.
Oh! I almost forgot. I finally ordered in Kamen Tantei and checked out vol. 1 last week. I didn't have very high hopes for it from what I'd heard from other fans/could see of the story, but I figured hey. It's Akino-sensei. I love her. I already have these books in Japanese, I might as well know what they're about. Even if the story isn't that great, I want to own everything she does, because she just rules.
Well, that was another pleasant surprise because, lo and behold, even though it's a high school detective series, she still manages to work in the odd scene of gore, the supernatural creeps into the plot quietly like a ninja, and there's a murder in every chapter. I think it's charming. Definitely geared toward a younger audience than her usual, I think, but not bad.
And then there's The Twelve Kingdoms, a DVD I randomly picked up last year in Sam Goody's going out of business sale for $3. Popped it in this week to see if it was something maybe worth keeping or not and found that I actually dig it. It's very old-style Chinese novel-y. The music's good, too. Even the dub didn't really put me off (I'm stuck listening to the dubs while going through DVDs because I'm packing at the same time and can't read subtitles), which is saying something. And I have to give props to a series that puts 5 episodes on a DVD instead of 3 or 4 (Utena!*cough*). Not only that, but it covered an entire story arc from beginning to end, which meant it didn't matter that I started with episode 40-something. I still got everything that was going on and enjoyed it.
It's something I wouldn't mind collecting/seeing more of, and that's definitely a nice surprise after the other rotten eggs I picked up in that sale. XD
Speaking of which! I tried Lunar Legend Tsukihime last weekend and was excited at first...then really disappointed. I remember flipping through the manga at some point going, "Is she a werewolf? A vampire? Wtf?" and giving up. But again, high-quality animation for $3. Unfortunately, the story just about bored me to DEATH.
Please explain to me how you can have some all-powerful phoenix-type vampire who randomly infects humans to go out and drink blood for him and the humans are running all over the city killing people but the show has NO action OR fighting sequences OR gore. It's just a fucking drama about this high school boy who every girl wants to bone. Hell's bells! It was like watching Love Hina without the gratuitous titty factor and laugh track-humour.
Seriously. If you're going to make me watch banal harem-plot anime, at least give me a bucketful of bishies or some gratuitous titties. That's all I ask for. I don't think it's too much.
Of course, at the VERY end of the DVD it threatened to get interesting, but I must say I just don't give a fuck after sitting through two hours of that "Are you dating so and so?!" "HOW could you sneak out late at night to meet so and so?!" "You got a job as a nude model?! *gasp*" "Let's go to the amusement park and have a completely banal episode!" crap.
Let me tell j00 something. If you take a fucking vampire to an amusement park, the story had better be sick and twisted/bitterly ironic. This was neither.
So um. XD Yeah. Not so pleasant on that surprise, but I digress.
Time to go get my hair cut.
Wouldn't you like to just happen to be visiting a bookstore and find out Neil was doing a signing that day?
On the train this morning, I brought volume 3 of Challengers because I'm almost to the end of Wolf's Rain and I didn't want to see everyone die horribly first thing in the morning. Of all the Drama Queen manga I picked up at Otakon last year, Challengers is by far the best. Which is hilarious, because I saved it for last figuring it was going to be stupid boy-love fluff. In fact it's a gay love/coming out story that is painfully realistic--but not in an angsty way. It's told in such a way that you alternately cringe and laugh your ass off. You know me, I always give thumbs-up to love stories that are at least trying to be realistic while still telling a good story, and this one is probably the best yet. My favourite not-couple is the uke's violently homophobic niisan and his gay lab assitant, though the American couple slays me dead every time. I just found out the former have their own manga now (The Tyrant Falls in Love), which is dangerous knowledge, my friend. Must buy.
Back to Wolf's Rain, after watching part of my DVD and giving up, I was saving the manga for last (and probably returnable for store credit) on my bookshelf. But I picked it up this week and actually liked it quite a lot. Yes, it's nihilistic and overly angsty, but I can handle that in a two volume series. I might give the anime another chance. Not sure. Either way, Darcia cosplay is looking good to me at some point. <.< Hell, the reason I first picked up the series was I was always drawn to the Amano!Morpheus-looking guy on the front.
Heh.
Oh! I almost forgot. I finally ordered in Kamen Tantei and checked out vol. 1 last week. I didn't have very high hopes for it from what I'd heard from other fans/could see of the story, but I figured hey. It's Akino-sensei. I love her. I already have these books in Japanese, I might as well know what they're about. Even if the story isn't that great, I want to own everything she does, because she just rules.
Well, that was another pleasant surprise because, lo and behold, even though it's a high school detective series, she still manages to work in the odd scene of gore, the supernatural creeps into the plot quietly like a ninja, and there's a murder in every chapter. I think it's charming. Definitely geared toward a younger audience than her usual, I think, but not bad.
And then there's The Twelve Kingdoms, a DVD I randomly picked up last year in Sam Goody's going out of business sale for $3. Popped it in this week to see if it was something maybe worth keeping or not and found that I actually dig it. It's very old-style Chinese novel-y. The music's good, too. Even the dub didn't really put me off (I'm stuck listening to the dubs while going through DVDs because I'm packing at the same time and can't read subtitles), which is saying something. And I have to give props to a series that puts 5 episodes on a DVD instead of 3 or 4 (Utena!*cough*). Not only that, but it covered an entire story arc from beginning to end, which meant it didn't matter that I started with episode 40-something. I still got everything that was going on and enjoyed it.
It's something I wouldn't mind collecting/seeing more of, and that's definitely a nice surprise after the other rotten eggs I picked up in that sale. XD
Speaking of which! I tried Lunar Legend Tsukihime last weekend and was excited at first...then really disappointed. I remember flipping through the manga at some point going, "Is she a werewolf? A vampire? Wtf?" and giving up. But again, high-quality animation for $3. Unfortunately, the story just about bored me to DEATH.
Please explain to me how you can have some all-powerful phoenix-type vampire who randomly infects humans to go out and drink blood for him and the humans are running all over the city killing people but the show has NO action OR fighting sequences OR gore. It's just a fucking drama about this high school boy who every girl wants to bone. Hell's bells! It was like watching Love Hina without the gratuitous titty factor and laugh track-humour.
Seriously. If you're going to make me watch banal harem-plot anime, at least give me a bucketful of bishies or some gratuitous titties. That's all I ask for. I don't think it's too much.
Of course, at the VERY end of the DVD it threatened to get interesting, but I must say I just don't give a fuck after sitting through two hours of that "Are you dating so and so?!" "HOW could you sneak out late at night to meet so and so?!" "You got a job as a nude model?! *gasp*" "Let's go to the amusement park and have a completely banal episode!" crap.
Let me tell j00 something. If you take a fucking vampire to an amusement park, the story had better be sick and twisted/bitterly ironic. This was neither.
So um. XD Yeah. Not so pleasant on that surprise, but I digress.
Time to go get my hair cut.