xparrot: (gintama cuteness)
X-parrot ([personal profile] xparrot) wrote2011-04-06 05:48 pm
Entry tags:

on Gintama and Saiyuki

New Gintama - waaaaaai~~~! Absolutely as awesome as I expected it to be, if not more, since they went ahead and started with the 2 years later arc!! Which makes sense but I didn't see it coming, and yeah, it's as hysterical as I knew it would be. Especially Shinpachi's scream (gif courtesy of [livejournal.com profile] nemissa) which, I won't lie, was what I was most looking forward to seeing animated from this arc (that and Okita, which will come next week - can't wait~!)

In the last week I also went and reread/read the whole Saiyuki manga series (I'd never read the second half of Gaiden or Reload) and oh man, it's such ridiculous, angstastic, at times nonsensical, unabashed emo-porn - and it's still one of my favorite series of all time. Minekura's art (and all her boys) are gorgeous and her characters and stories push so many buttons of mine. Nothing brings the h/c quite like Saiyuki, and their particular flavor of always-at-odds-and-pretending-not-to-care-about-each-other-although-in-truth-we-really-really-do is about as perfectly tuned to my own tastes for that kink as anything I've ever seen.

The way they get along in spite of themselves - or don't get along but love each other anyway - is irresistible. They get into these huge fights and moral clashes and sometimes they split up, but they always find their way back to each other in the nick of time. I love Gojyo leaving them during the Kami-sama arc, and then them leaving Sanzo during Even a Worm (oh man, that whole sequence in that arc, from Goku going down and Sanzo totally losing his shit and Hakkai going youkai and Gojyo stopping him with only a look and generally just being awesome - yoooow...)(Even a Worm hasn't been animated, has it? Siiiiigh!)

(Then the end of the arc, and they're all (as usual) lying on the ground too beaten to actually move ("We can't fall asleep here, one of us will definitely be dead by the time we wake up in the morning." "The dead guy's the loser." "You know you're most likely to be that guy, Sanzo...") and yelling at one another to stop being dumb because it hurts to laugh and janken'ing to see who has to haul Sanzo's broken body back to Jeep - with Sanzo playing too, even though he can't walk, because he won't suffer one of them dragging him - whahahah awwww...)

I think Gojyo's still my favorite (he cares so much and is so bad at hiding it! <3333) but I don't really know, because I love them all, in all their fucked-up borderline-psychotic co-dependent glory. Sanzo might be Minekura's special woobie but she gives all of them their fair dues. And I love that it's not quite BL, so there's no confirmed pairings and instead she just hints at everything - any combination of the four has a unique and intense bond. (For the record my 58/93 OTPs are UNTIL THE END OF TIIIIIIIME...but that doesn't mean I don't love the various shades of brotherly love between everyone else, too.)

Also I adore Kougaiji and his crew (and how they are so much better at being heroes than the Sanzou-ikkou) and I actually got rather fond of Hazel, enough to feel sorry for him and Gat by the end (even if I know better than to get too attached to any non-major chars, since their stories almost always end tragically...)

...And okay, I kind of can't help but love-to-hate-going-on-actual-love Ukoku because, uhhh, glasses-wearing evil genius sociopaths are my type? ^^;;;

Wasn't there a Gaiden OAV? Should go hunt that up...(Though I vaguely fear watching the anime, when Hakkai now will sound like Zura ^^;)

(And now I've gone and tracked down a translation of the actual Journey to the West, since it's a little odd that Saiyuki's the only version I'm really familiar with...roughly akin to Men in Tights being one's only knowledge of Robin Hood, or Merlin being your primary experience of Arthurian legend.)
ext_3572: (Default)

[identity profile] xparrot.livejournal.com 2011-04-07 04:29 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah, they're kind of undeniably in love ^_^

And yay for fangirl friendships! They're looking forward to seeing you & LA, too (sorry I'm missing the trip, need to be here to continue the job hunt! >.<)

[identity profile] ro-anshi.livejournal.com 2011-04-07 04:37 am (UTC)(link)
sorry I'm missing the trip, need to be here to continue the job hunt!

I too am very sorry you (and your sister) won't be able to join on the Los Angeles part of the program. One of these days, we'll manage to meet! (Did your sister tell you she and I actually talked on the phone a while ago by accident?)
ext_3572: (Default)

[identity profile] xparrot.livejournal.com 2011-04-07 08:46 pm (UTC)(link)
She did, and she really enjoyed it - she just told me now to tell you how much she regrets not being able to go down herself! Someday, someday! (I'd also love to see LA, only been the once (my main memory is that the Mexican food is delicious! ^^))