miscellaneous squee
Aug. 22nd, 2007 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xparrotArgh, I need to be writing! The words, she are not coming... >_>
The Jeeves & Wooster TV series is much fun. Wodehouse's original stories are much fun +1000. Though they're dangerous to read on breaks at work because I start choking trying to keep from laughing out loud. I can see how Douglas Adams was inspired by him. (And yep, slashy as Fry & Laurie's J&W are, the books...heh. Bertie is "essentially one of nature's bachelors". Yes, Jeeves, you would know.)(Speaking of nature's bachelors, must remember to rec Biological Exuberance, for all your gay animal rights needs.)
Also am getting back into the manga, J-dramas, etc.! For the language practice, of course. And the cute boys playing football - Eyeshield 21 is still love. Even though this last chapter (245) was a terrible place to be stopped. Hiruma will always be my demonic darling and the Devil Bats are too cute for words. The Shinryuuji match is still my favorite (not just because of Vegeta-clone Ikkyu! They're one of the few teams one wants to see go down & go down hard, unlike the others where you sympathize enough to be a mite melancholy when they lose) but Deimon vs Oujou was plenty exciting once it got going. And that silent communication in the last second? Oh shounen, you bring on the squee like nothing else.
And in the category of: technically Shounen manga but which god did they sacrifice puppies to manage that? there's xxxHolic. I've been into 'Holic for a while now. In general I have a love/hate relationship with CLAMP; I love their art but get impatient with their brand of willowy aaaaaangsty will-we-or-won't-we BL teasing. I have trouble connecting with their chars. Card Captor Sakura was about the only exception, and that love didn't carry over to Tsubasa (I don't dislike the series, but the way Sakura was switched from plucky shoujo heroine to typically annoying shounen plot-device girl got to me. And Fai's just not my bishounen type, and Kurogane is trying too hard to be.)
I don't remember why I started reading xxxHolic, except that CLAMP does bring on the pretty. I started buying the English edition of the manga when I was back in Borders-proximity and found it entertaining; fun ghost story lite and the characters amused me without me getting especially attached to any of them. At first. I wasn't expecting to fall for Doumeki/Watanuki, and then there was volume 6 and I...did, hard. Even knowing this is CLAMP, where there's a 90% chance of sakura petal rain, a 10% chance of canon BL, and 40% chance Doumeki will smile cheerfully as he carves up Watanuki's non-existent twin sister. Or something of the sort. (btw, does anyone else suspect that when the CLAMP girls were designing xxxHolic they happened to be reading a lot of One Piece dounjinshi at the time? Doumeki/Watanuki plays out way too much like dj-fanon Zoro/Sanji. Obviously the anime creators agreed with this, considering they cast Nakai as Doumeki.) But despite this...Doumeki/Watauki is cuuuuuute, and there's some good fic to support this habit, too.
That's not the problem; the problem is after catching up with this year's 'Holic, my 'ship got expanded. I went from vaguely disliking Himawari-chan for always being there making Watanuki even more of an idiot than he already is and using the poor boy badly in an almost Lana-Lang-esque manner, to, after the revelations in volume 10, absolutely loving her and being all sad for her and wanting her and Doumeki and Watanuki to eat cake together and buy themselves a little house and be happy and squeeing about this when I reread previous chapters. And this being CLAMP, there's no guarantee anyone will get a happy ending. Or an ending at all. Not to mention with all the wacky dreaming that's been going on in 'Holic lately I don't know if the last few chapters even really happened, much less what they mean either way. I'm gonna have to read Tsubasa just to figure out what's going on in 'Holic. I will, even knowing that this is the wicked plan; what fangirls they missed snaring with Fai, they'll catch with Dou/Wata.
...it's the sad truth of shoujo manga fandom: we are all CLAMP's bitches in the end.
For those wanting to check out xxxHolic but are unable to buy the manga for whatever reasons - torrent here, plus vol.10 and vol.11 of BWYS's scanlations.
And now...I must catch up with OP!
The Jeeves & Wooster TV series is much fun. Wodehouse's original stories are much fun +1000. Though they're dangerous to read on breaks at work because I start choking trying to keep from laughing out loud. I can see how Douglas Adams was inspired by him. (And yep, slashy as Fry & Laurie's J&W are, the books...heh. Bertie is "essentially one of nature's bachelors". Yes, Jeeves, you would know.)(Speaking of nature's bachelors, must remember to rec Biological Exuberance, for all your gay animal rights needs.)
Also am getting back into the manga, J-dramas, etc.! For the language practice, of course. And the cute boys playing football - Eyeshield 21 is still love. Even though this last chapter (245) was a terrible place to be stopped. Hiruma will always be my demonic darling and the Devil Bats are too cute for words. The Shinryuuji match is still my favorite (not just because of Vegeta-clone Ikkyu! They're one of the few teams one wants to see go down & go down hard, unlike the others where you sympathize enough to be a mite melancholy when they lose) but Deimon vs Oujou was plenty exciting once it got going. And that silent communication in the last second? Oh shounen, you bring on the squee like nothing else.
And in the category of: technically Shounen manga but which god did they sacrifice puppies to manage that? there's xxxHolic. I've been into 'Holic for a while now. In general I have a love/hate relationship with CLAMP; I love their art but get impatient with their brand of willowy aaaaaangsty will-we-or-won't-we BL teasing. I have trouble connecting with their chars. Card Captor Sakura was about the only exception, and that love didn't carry over to Tsubasa (I don't dislike the series, but the way Sakura was switched from plucky shoujo heroine to typically annoying shounen plot-device girl got to me. And Fai's just not my bishounen type, and Kurogane is trying too hard to be.)
I don't remember why I started reading xxxHolic, except that CLAMP does bring on the pretty. I started buying the English edition of the manga when I was back in Borders-proximity and found it entertaining; fun ghost story lite and the characters amused me without me getting especially attached to any of them. At first. I wasn't expecting to fall for Doumeki/Watanuki, and then there was volume 6 and I...did, hard. Even knowing this is CLAMP, where there's a 90% chance of sakura petal rain, a 10% chance of canon BL, and 40% chance Doumeki will smile cheerfully as he carves up Watanuki's non-existent twin sister. Or something of the sort. (btw, does anyone else suspect that when the CLAMP girls were designing xxxHolic they happened to be reading a lot of One Piece dounjinshi at the time? Doumeki/Watanuki plays out way too much like dj-fanon Zoro/Sanji. Obviously the anime creators agreed with this, considering they cast Nakai as Doumeki.) But despite this...Doumeki/Watauki is cuuuuuute, and there's some good fic to support this habit, too.
That's not the problem; the problem is after catching up with this year's 'Holic, my 'ship got expanded. I went from vaguely disliking Himawari-chan for always being there making Watanuki even more of an idiot than he already is and using the poor boy badly in an almost Lana-Lang-esque manner, to, after the revelations in volume 10, absolutely loving her and being all sad for her and wanting her and Doumeki and Watanuki to eat cake together and buy themselves a little house and be happy and squeeing about this when I reread previous chapters. And this being CLAMP, there's no guarantee anyone will get a happy ending. Or an ending at all. Not to mention with all the wacky dreaming that's been going on in 'Holic lately I don't know if the last few chapters even really happened, much less what they mean either way. I'm gonna have to read Tsubasa just to figure out what's going on in 'Holic. I will, even knowing that this is the wicked plan; what fangirls they missed snaring with Fai, they'll catch with Dou/Wata.
...it's the sad truth of shoujo manga fandom: we are all CLAMP's bitches in the end.
For those wanting to check out xxxHolic but are unable to buy the manga for whatever reasons - torrent here, plus vol.10 and vol.11 of BWYS's scanlations.
And now...I must catch up with OP!
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-22 01:17 pm (UTC)And I'll let you know about the OP, soon as I get through it - I'm about 8 months behind, soooo...!
no subject
Date: 2007-08-22 01:29 pm (UTC)Yay, OP! More OP is always a good thing. ♥