she lives! still!

[xparrot]

Contrary to rumors of homicidal ghosts in badly photoshopped paintings, or disappearance down a whirling vortex to a strange new world, I am in fact alive and well and still living in Kyoto, and since I have succeeded in finding a job (at the most infamously evil of the eikaiwa co.'s, but let's not get into that; a job is a job and a visa is a visa and the important thing is I am not getting deported. I would have to be dragged kicking and screaming from my Book Offs and combinis and kaiten sushi places, not to mention my imouto-tachi, and it would be terrifically embarrassing) I'm likely to be here for a good long while yet.

April is apparently International Guilt the Author Month; in the course of a week I received two convincing inducements to continue with various unfinished projects, in the form of lovely fanart, a rare piece for Illicit Miracles (well-timed; my webmanga's annual hiatus ends next Monday) and this one from Ru for Tiger Hunt. Which I will be posting a new chapter to. Uh. Soon. Marvelous bribes, at any rate.

Meanwhile, looking at these last two months in Japan...I have a problem. The first step is acceptance, right? My name is X-parrot, and I'm addicted to doujinshi. I have some 43 YGO doujinshi and counting. ...or will be counting, next time I go to Mandarake's. They're not all Kaiba kyoudai or Kaiba/Yami, either - have a few Yugi x Jou (no, really, Yugi's on top half the time. Jounouchi is the world's uke) and even a Honda x Jou. Though almost no Yami/Yugi, not for lack of searching. WTF, Japanese fandom? Is that one too obvious for you or something? (Though immicolia - success! Found a couple Kaiba x Yugi, one of which I need to translate because from what I was getting it's sweet enough to rot your teeth. And might even feature Yugi angsting about his other self, wasn't sure.)

I really must scanlate some of these, share the crack wealth. Also need to post my translation of the Q&A from the char guide book, Takahashi-sensei's got some interesting insight on Kaiba. Such as the thing that screwed him up the most about Gozaburo's death was because Gozaburo killed himself, Seto can't exactly take it as his win. ...At least I think that's it. My grasp of written Japanese is none too perfect. But I can give the gist, at least.

Comments

[immicolia.livejournal.com]

Man. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of Yugi x Jou. Just because Yugi topping is so..... mind bending. (but then, I have complained that I wanted to see the boy top... Although, really, I want to see him top Kaiba ^^)

And GLEE! over the Kaiba x Yugi. I've only ever seen scans from one. Which was a mixture of deathly adorable and hot and involved Yugi wearing a bow in his hair. You know I want to see whatever you have. ^^

[topaz-kat.livejournal.com]

I have a couple of YamixYugi, maybe they just stopped selling in Japan... I don't know. I'm glad you're doing well but I hope you can let us know what's going on more than once every two months, one would think you'd drown in a plate of sushi.

[ex-naye320.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're not getting deported! And your doujinshi scare me! ♥ What? I just have Gojyo the blushing uke, that's nothing compared to your weirdness! :D

[nenya85.livejournal.com]

Yay! Great to hear from you! Congatulations on the job! (What exacly is it, not to mention what is the eikaiwa co., or shouldn't I ask?)

I am prepared to shamelessly beg for anything about Kaiba from the character guidebook! I've never seen any of it translated, and I've been dying to! I always assumed that the thing that fucked him up most about Gozaburo's death was Gozaburo saying 'losing equals death' -- a precept he certainly seems to have taken to heart (lol). What you said was interesting -- did he feel that Gozaburo killing himself meant he wasn't a worthy opponent or that Goazuro by killing himself was somehow stealing a victory from him? Either way, it's interesting in light of the fact that Kaiba was prepared to fall from a high tower in his duel against Yugi at Duelist's Kingdom. (I'm also curious to see if Mr. Takahashi said anything about their life before Gozaburo, since I think the loss of his parents at such a young age also acounts for a lot of his character. I tend to see Gozaburo as someone who broke Kaiba in places that he was already damaged.

Talk to you later. Glad to see the YGO obsession continues. In a shameless self promotion, I'll probably be ready to post the first chapter of a post-manga quest/fairy tale in a week or two.

Totally random note: I like Yugi/Jounouchi -- I always like reverse size positioning, and let's face it -- emotionally, who tops who in that pairing? It's probably the reason I'm one of the few people who thinks it should be Yugi/Yami if you're headed in that direction.

[zimarra.livejournal.com]

I am glad that things are going well- You are doing even better than me and Im in the states. Seems like many things are blocking my path at the moment. One of those is that I'm addicted to this computer game called Puzzle Pirates, but still.

I miss you, X-Parrot, but I'm glad things are going well anyways. Maybe someday I'll go and visit you. I couldn't live in Japan, but I could visit..

[ladykarasu.livejournal.com]

So here's me, completely oblivious (not that that’s abnormal…), not even realizing you were in japan. Belated congrats on that trip; hope you're having fun. ^_~ Since I obviously missed it- prompted that? (Heh; guess I'm not likely to run into you at Otakon, after all.... oh well, more the worse for me, more the better for you. *laughs*)

April IS guilt an author month; and I find it highly amusing that you mention it, because I've already said that least three times now... That just struck me as funny, sorry - never mind me. ^_~ At any rate, I think I like your mode of guilting better- mine's mostly self inflicted, and only occasionally through outside influence. (…and while I have no room to talk; pleeeeeease? More to read? ^_~)

Interesting take on Kaiba and Gozaburo; I can totally see that being a problem for him. I’ll also happily read any doujinshi you decide to share at any point, because I have a bit of that addiction as well. ^_^

[(Anonymous)]

You're working for Nova?!

Also, doesn't living with/near your aforementioned imouto-tachi make it Guilt the Author Year or something?

[rgbrobbie.livejournal.com]

Hey! Good to see you surface on LJ again! :)

my webmanga's annual hiatus ends next Monday

I was thinking about "Illicit Miracles" recently and wondering if anything else was ever going to happen to it/with it again. I've liked it. I've missed it. I look forward to seeing more of it. :)

And... doujinshi? So THAT's what they're called. A couple of us former RGB fans (devinharris and I) have gotten into the PS2 RPG "Dragon Quest VIII." Fumbling around Japanese websites in search of fanart (a fine example of which is my icon ::w00ts for Templar Angelo::) we've hit ads for fan-manga which we find sorely tempting.... but we have no way to acquire them, being a) in the U.S. and b) non-Japanese speaking. Have you run across any DQVIII doujinshi while on your own, er, quests? And.... would it be at all possible to pick some up for us if you see any? (We have "wish lists.") Of course you'd be fully funded in advance, if you choose to accept this mission.

Let us know. ("NO CAN DO" BTW is a PERFECTLY acceptable answer.)

I'm so glad you got the opportunity to LIVE in Kyoto. It's been 20 years now (gah) since I visited Japan, for only a couple weeks, and I just loved Kyoto. I can only imagine what it's like to be immersed.

[nightwalker.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the job! I hope it goes well and that they are not nearly so evil as as been reported.

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

But we LIKE you being obsessed with YGO/Kaiba; we really, really do! ^____________________________^ It makes me feel so much better about becoming a Snarky!Bakura fan. **sigh**

Pompiliy

[(Anonymous)]

nice project with good design and pictures...best wishes...;-))