"Becoming an Otome means giving up on love, giving up on female happiness...unless you become a lesbian like we did. We encourage it!"

I think I might be paraphrasing a bit. Just a bit. Okay, a lot.

My favorite part so far is seeing what Shizuru, Natsuki, Haruka, and Yukino become once they're given a less messed-up background (in Shizuru and Natsuki's cases) and several years to mature (in the case of all four). As I predicted, they take over the world. I still prefer them in HiME because I like the messed-up-ness of HiME!Shizuru/Natsuki and have less interest in them as an admittedly hot settled-down couple, but it's nice to see.

I also like the expressions the main characters make. There will be icons. So far, though, I prefer HiME. If Arika gets the kind of depth Mai did, I may change my mind, but, well...HiME has psycho Shizuru, and I'm one of those horrible fans who loves her best.

Oh, yeah, and Shiho reimagined is glorious Especially with Nao. And I love her, Akane, and Chie as a trio.

Required for Sunrise endings: explosions, tears, sparkles.

Not required: logic.

Actually, I thought it was pretty good.

( Spoilers and such. )

I have acquired the first season of True Blood. After I finish Mai-HiME, that will be my next watching project.

I am up through episode 18 of Mai-HiME. Current status: my favorites are Midori (by far) and Takumi (surprise! Well, not such a surprise considering the stuff he admits in episode 17, but it was a surprise to me, at least). I am shipping Akira/Takumi like burning, loving Haruka/Yukino, highly intrigued by Midori/Nao (for no good reason, since it's not like they particularly interact much, but I really want to RP Midori against a Nao), and looking forward to seeing the crazy that goes down with Shizuru/Natsuki.

After True Blood, I will probably go back to anime lesbians with Ga-Rei Zero, since it's short.

After that, I may return to live-action TV for Nurse Jackie, because while just from what I've heard some things about it will irritate me (the usual half-assed handling of pills and addiction, in particular), I really like the idea of a show about a nurse instead of a doctor getting to be a compelling antihero for once.

However, I have four other options for either before or after that: Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha, Full Metal Panic (at least the first season), Terra e... (so that I can watch a genuinely good anime for once instead of a cheesy but compelling one), and Mai-Otome. So we'll see.

A meme from the japanweb has somehow found its way here. I could not resist. (Note that for the favorite characters sections, I'm including Japanese video games as well, since I actually have not watched all that much anime, compared to some.)

オタクバトン - OTAKU BATON

( Spam and moonspeak. )

To go with that, I have finally answered the questions from this post. Here they are!

( Entirely too much thought put into fandom stuff. )

Macross Frontier
Good: Mostly consistent and likable characters, nice relationship development, an impressive amount of pretty music.
Bad: Poor pacing, slightly rushed ending, occasionally sketchy plot. I would have liked to see the main villain get more development.
My Favorite Part: The way the relationship among Alto, Sheryl, and Ranka was used to reflect the larger themes of the series, while giving both girls plenty of character development and sympathy.
Comments: I feel like I should watch the earlier Macross series now. This wasn't the greatest show ever or anything, but I did enjoy it a lot, especially for the borderline-canon OT3. The mecha fights took up less screentime than I expected, but I guess they had to make room for the jpop. Towards the end I felt like they were glossing over some important revelations, but they managed to make the very end solid enough that I was willing to look past that. In any case, I was never in it for the plot. I was in it because the characters and pairings touched me in my happy place. It was kind of like Gundam SEED that way, which to a large group of bitter fanboys is like saying it was touched by the devil, but whatever. I like my mecha series dramatic, tearjerking, and occasionally sappy.

You should watch it if you...
♦ Like jpop
♦ Enjoy love triangles
♦ Enjoy OT3s even more than love triangles
♦ Like jpop even a little bit
♦ Like space operas
♦ Like the general trappings of mecha/super robot anime, but don't mind seeing them tweaked around a bit
♦ Know how to take a show seriously in one scene and giggle at it in the next one
♦ Seriously, did I mention the jpop?

Murder Princess
Good: Fun characters, the heroine getting to kick all kinds of ass without needing any men in the picture at all, a star-studded cast.
Bad: Fairly generic setting and plot.
My Favorite Part: Did I mention the heroine getting to kick all kinds of ass without needing any men in the picture? Yeah. Plus her ambiguously lesbian vibe with The Chick.
Comments: This was a good series for reminding me why epic fantasy is fun. In another show I probably would have been annoyed at The Chick (Alita/Mirano) being so very much The Chick, but in this series, she was balanced out by the heroine (Falis/Alita) being the yang to her yin, and I didn't mind at all. Their sidekicks were also fun--and there was not the slightest hint of het romance in the whole thing. I like het romance fine, but sometimes it's nice to have a break. Surprisingly, considering the focus on female characters, there was very little fanservice--no jiggling, little in the way of clothes getting ripped off (Falis does rip her dress often, but only enough to help her move more freely), only one or two bath scenes, and only one female character (out of three major ones) whose outfit really shows off her boobs. Despite the shortness of the series, I felt there was really only one plot thread they left dangling, and I can easily fanwank that away into delicious ship fodder.

You should watch it if you...
♦ Enjoy epic fantasy...
♦ ...but are sick of seeing only guys kick ass in it
♦ Would like a short, fun action series
♦ Like seeing girls kick ass
♦ Enjoy Romantic Two Girl Friendships

Next: Kannazuki no Miko, Soul Eater (anime up to about episode 30, then manga), Xam'd Lost Memories.

Five minutes into this anime, and I can tell it's just pure concentrated cheesy heroic fantasy, but with more ass-kicking women. My adolescence! But with more ass-kicking women! And possibly more lesbian subtext, if what I've heard is right.

I've edited my anime schedule somewhat; after I finish Murder Princess, I'm going to go on to Kannazuki no Miko, because I have that on DVD. Spending all that time hunched over my computer mainlining Macross Frontier did a number on my back. The couch will be a relief.

Edit: I amend: cheesy heroic fantasy with killer loli robot maids.

The Bride of Edit: Rocket-powered killer loli robot maids. Also there's a flaming motorcycle. But mostly, it's pure concentrated cheesy heroic fantasy.

I woke up at 3:45 this morning hung over. This wouldn't be so bad if I'd had more to drink last night than a pint and a half (less, even!) of Guinness and one Irish coffee.

I have betrayed my heritage.

On the plus side! We're going to Trinity College today, and in a nearby bookshop I have already spotted the second and third Science of Discworld books, which I have been yearning after for years now.

I will try to catch up on comments eventually! It may have to wait, though, as internet here is kind of expensive, bawww.

Note to self: acquire the anime Gai-Rei-Zero when you get home, for awesome lesbians.

I finished Princess Tutu last night. ( Well, I guess the whole post is kind of spoilery, so I'll cut it here, but really the only details are towards the end. )

I really want to watch it again, with someone this time, and with fewer random long breaks. Sometime.

I. I'm four minutes into "The Western Air Temple," and I can't resist posting--how did I forget how good this show was during my breaks from it? How beautifully it handled story-telling in general? I may have to get the DVDs and rewatch the whole damn thing. Despite all the other things I want to watch.

II. Speaking of those other things...I have discovered another reason TVTropes is bad for me. It makes me go, "ooh! This is so my kind of thing! *DOWNLOADS*" Acquired so far for this reason: Red Garden (twenty-two episodes) and Murder Princess (six episodes). I may watch the latter soon, since...it has an ass-kicking princess and lesbian subtext. How can I resist? I also have Mnemosyne, which is similarly short and also has lesbian subtext.

I tried to watch another episode of Princess Tutu last night, but I couldn't get sound from my DVD player. Dammit.

III. Am I the only one who genuinely ships Kureha/Shinbashi (in that order)? I made the mistake of venturing into fandom while looking for scanlations, and it seems like most of fandom either ignores Kureha, hates on her, or sideships her with Shinbashi (even though he's "creepy" according to them...and Sou isn't?) to get her out of the way of the glorious, perfect Sou/Mashiro.

( Spoilerish bits. )

IV. I recently discovered my old copy of Garth Nix's Sabriel, which I read as a kid and really liked. I barely remember any of it, though, and I've heard lots of good things about the whole trilogy, so I'm considering rereading it and then picking up...the others are Lirael and Abhorsen, right? I haven't actually read those; by the time I even heard they existed, I'd long since forgotten most of Sabriel.

V. I was deeply weirded out by today's Penny Arcade. For a while I thought I actually had the same birthday as Gabe, but then I looked it up and realized that his is actually the 25th. So I guess I'm safe.

I'll be getting chocolate from the fancy place after dinner, too!

VI. And now I'd better get back to watching "The Western Air Temple" before I get any more distracted. It's just too good.

So, I finished Gurren Lagann last night.

( Cut for spoilers and spam. )

( Fanart links. )

So, uh...with that done, the question is: what now? Well, other than actual RL stuff. I'm thinking Gundam 00--I've already watched the first episode, I just need to get back to it now.

Went to NY Anime Festival today. There wasn't really much there--it was my first convention other than Otakon, and the difference was striking, both in content and organization. Still, they had some neat stuff and some nice artists (including Avatar light ali_wildgoose and the amazing ghostfire, who I'd happened on both on DA and at Otakon before), and there was sushi at the Maid Cafe; that's as much as anyone can ask for from a small convention, I suppose.

I didn't mean to spend as much money as I did, but then I came across the Berserk artbook and it was expensive. But I got it anyway because eeee the little pictures of the Hawks were so cute and there were so many angsty pretty Griffith pictures. I know I haven't seen really good scans around much, so if there's a specific picture you've seen smaller and would liked scanned bigger, I'll do my best.

I also got several chibi action figures. One was a Rin/Archer set, and they are adorable (and OTP); the other bunch was three Final Fantasy figures, one of Squall, one of Rinoa, and one of Penelo. So cute.

Finally, I got two doujinshi, continuing my trend of picking up clean doujin from the porn rack at conventions. One was a very prettily-drawn Locke/Celes; the other was a hilarious Fran/Balthier. I wouldn't say the latter is entirely clean, since there's plenty of nudity, but there's no on-page sex, just lots of jokes and the two of them being drunk and naked and flirty. Also, abusing Vaan.

Oh yeah, and for free, I got three Sweeney Todd posters. YES. I am so excited for that movie I think I could burst. But then I wouldn't get to see it! Oh, these cruel paradoxes.

Anyway, I close with what appears to be the cutest video ever. I actually teared up from the cuteness while watching it.

Crow mothers kitten. It's true. And adorable.

Okay, it's taken me a while to work up the courage to post this, because many Gurren Lagann fans, as far as I can tell, are frequently batshit insane. So let me state beforehand: if you don't want to see in-depth analysis of the series, don't click. If you just want to appreciate the manly awesome of the series, if your commentary on it is "OMG THIS IS SO EPIC GAR I CRIED MANLY TEARS," if you worship Kamina as the epitome of manly awesome, if you spent every episode thinking, "this is the best anime ever made," please, for the love of God, do not click and start flaming me.

The above, by the way, is not meant as an insult to the intelligence of said fans. That is a perfectly valid way to watch the series. I kind of wish I could watch it that way, because it sounds like tons of fun. I have found, however, that I can't. Which brings me to my next point: I'm not trying to degrade the show by analyzing it like this. Honest I'm not. I really, really wanted to watch it just as the best anime ever, full of glorious gar. I couldn't. This isn't me trying to be cool and pretentious and overly intellectual. This is just the only way I can enjoy the show.

So with that in mind, here are ( my thoughts on gar. )

This is as much for my own reference as anything else. Asterisked entries are higher priority than the rest.

( Various series that I want to get into at some point in the future, roughly categorized. )

I'm pretty sure I've forgotten a few. I'll add more as I remember.

I. No, friendslist-chan, I have not abandoned you. I've just been kind of...not all here for the past week or so. Specifically, I've mostly been sandbox-RPing in the nexuscity setting, and it's totally gotten out of hand. Suffice to say, it's been almost a year and a half since I last RPed a character I was totally obsessed with. Even if it is damned weird to be RPing a character from a critically-acclaimed crime drama, WTF? On a game with characters from fantasy novels and comic books? Also, writing his dialogue makes me feel really damned white. It's embarrassing.

That said: Omar's page on nexuscity's wiki, sup. No spoilers, just general awesome of which I am far too proud.

Unfortunately this all means that my desire to RP other characters has dropped into a puddle around my feet. Omar is holding them all at gunpoint or something, I don't know. (He totally isn't. He would never do that unless they were selling drugs or something. Maybe they're just scared of him? Or awed by his hotness?)

II. Saw PotC: At World's End the other day. We went out for dinner first; our waiter was a cute and friendly guy who kept flirting with me. I felt bad about being a lesbian for like, the only time in my life. :(

Then the movie. ( Snipped for some spoilers and commentary. )

II. Now for some television stuff! ( Snipped for spam, but no spoilers. )

III. I have a fair amount of things I need to do at the moment. Here are the important ones:
--Figure out how to get a hold of a copy of my GED
--Finish Kean application (I won't be able to get into the fall semester, since the deadline for that was May 31, but spring should work)
--Get my passport renewed/redone/whatever so we can go to London again this summer, omfg yes
--Prereg for Otakon, finally
--Figure out who I'll be staying with at Otakon!

Here are the less important ones that I still should get done eventually:
--Figure out what more needs to be done on rosemush before I can start advertising it again
--Fanfiction for yuri_challenge (dead muse is dead)
--Wiki entries on Clockland and Elfland for nexuscity
--Free my other characters in my brain enough to RP Marcus and Hughes on ineffablegame
--Catch up on Romeo x Juliet
--Probably some other stuff I'm forgetting

More trivial stuff and/or stuff that I have plenty of time on:
--Fic for 30_kisses
--Fic for het_challenge
--Get back into icontests and icons in general (I neeeeed to make more Wire icons. I need an icon of my OT3, I need more Omar icons, I need more Stringer Bell icons...oh, and I need to make icons of hot black men for rampant_geekery)
--Pick up some new canons

IV. Speaking of new canons--aside from Battlestar Galactica, which I will watch as soon as I find the damned DVDs, my current choices for "getting into next" are Heroes on the TV front and xxxHolic on the anime/manga front.

I just have to...deWire my brain a little.

V. Meme time! Actually, the second one is Old Meme, but it's been a while, so whatever.

a) Name a character and I will give you three reasons why he or she sucks. (Not guaranteed to be serious. You know how hard it is to get me to hate a character.)
b) Name a character, pairing, or canon, and I will list my unpopular opinions on the subject.

I've been failing to complete memes a lot lately, so uh...I'll try to keep that in mind and finish this one. :<

VI. lol sup Gundam 00

What can I say? From the names involved, it looks awesome. The director of FMA and the writer of Honey and Clover? I'm so there. Also, the character designs are by the Loveless artist; I'm less familiar with that, but I know some of you guys are fond of it. I'm not too thrilled by the decision to set it 300 years in the future of this world rather than in some vague and nebulous future, because I can just see them doing all sorts of dumb political stuff with that, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

However, after Code Geass, I am very bitter about everything related to Sunrise. Yet I will at least try to watch this one. Although I'm hoping I'll have finished Wing and maybe even Turn A by the time it starts airing in October.

The purple-haired one with glasses had seriously better be a girl.

VII. Cat macros for your journal! It doesn't work so well on mine, because most of the subjects for my public entries are boring, but I've seen some good ones from other people's LJs.

VIII. Am once again working on getting rosemush into shape, especially now that I've drafted kanna onto staff for added abuse. (Although I still feel bad about abandoning our original staff naming theme. Sigh.)

We also finally have a functioning room parent; now I just need to figure out what to do about getting players and keeping them. I've come up with a couple of code-based ideas that play into each other. One is a system of NPCs that players can talk to in order to hear tidbits about the setting and what's going on. Another is a series of secret commands and hidden rooms hinted at in descriptions. With these two systems, players could uncover mini-plots on their own and RP them as they like.

Except I'm not sure anybody would use said system. Other than that...the only idea I have? Lots of plots. And I'm not sure how many I could handle.

IX. I've all but run out of Katamari cousins and Berserk characters to make as starters on Pony Island, so I've moved on instead to making breeding pairs of my favorite (non-Berserk) pairings. So far I have Squall and Rinoa (Phoenix ponies), Rydia and Edge (Valkyrie ponies), Dearka and Miriallia (Winged Unicorns), Fllay and Yzak (Fairy ponies), Allen and Rinali (Winged Unicorns), and Karin and Chad (Earth ponies). I'm not sure who to make next, or what breed to make them. But they'll be very cute.

X. Having not posted in a week, I'm pretty sure I have more that should be said. But I can't think of it right now, so I'mma just post now, whee.

I. General anime stuff, not Code Geass-related: the trailer for the Romeo x Juliet anime. Yes, they are doing an anime based on Romeo and Juliet. Loosely based, since apparently it takes place on a floating city with winged horses, and Juliet runs around as Zorro.

However, since it was never one of my favorite Shakespeare plays, I think these changes make it more awesome. I will probably be following it.

II. Code Geass-related: say hello to the new wallpaper that has finally replaced my Athrun/Cagalli WP. Mmm, Kallen.

III. Also Code Geass-related: there is already Britcest on the japanweb. :( Not that I object on principle, because they're a fucked-up royal family, and incest practically comes with that package, but WTF, people, Schneizel hasn't even shown up in the series yet, why are you already pairing him with Lelouch? Not to mention Lelouch/Euphemia whyyyyy.

IV. One more Geass-related matter: I itch to write Jeremiah/Viletta smut. They are so doing it. Aaaaugh must finish my bleach_yurithon fic so I can do that.

On the plus side, I have at least found a good Jeremiah/Viletta fanart site, and that makes me happy.

Mosso also has some very pretty fanart, including a few gorgeous Kallen pieces.

V. To complete my transformation into a sparkly-eyed weeaboo, I am now going to go out and get myself some delicious sushi for dinner. When I come back, I expect to say "kawaii!!" and use the ^_^ emoticon until one of you shoots me.

So it's time that I sat down and admitted it: I am obsessed with Code Geass. BIG SURPRISE THERE. I've only been talking about it constantly.

Those familiar with my journal should know what comes next: I attempt to cram the series in question down everyone else's throats.

It's your lucky day, because I'm about to cram a bunch of shoujo-styled mecha down your throats!

But I'll be gentle.

Code Geass is Yet Another Anime About Giant Robots. But I don't watch much mecha anime--or any at all except for this one and Gundam SEED--so why this one? Well...there are several reasons. These also happen to be the reasons you should watch Code Geass.

1) The girls. ( How so? )
2) The antihero. ( Yeah, I know he's an overly dramatic prick but bear with me on this one. )
3) The animation quality. ( What? )
4) The setting and politics. ( Bear with me on this one. )
5) Evil British people. Come on, this shouldn't need more explanations. Everyone loves evil Brits.

Look, just watch it, it's really cool. It's got a lot of Gundam SEED in it--they share a writer (no, not Morosawa, thank you)--but it adds entirely new twists and turns and looks at things from a very new perspective.

Plus, evil Brits.

** Torrents **

Given that gg (the first group to start subbing) has a presence on Livejournal and people have been mocked in anonymous comments for expressing a preference for Shinsen & Ureshii's subs, I'm going to avoid going into detail in public on which I prefer. Make your own choice, or ask me for more information privately.

However, I know not all of you do well with torrents. So I've started uploading the AVIs (that is, Shinsen & Ureshii's version, because people tend to find AVIs easier) to megaupload. I will keep uploading them and adding the links to this post until I've caught up with the current episode; then it should be easy for people to watch code_geass and see when direct downloads are posted there.

Enjoy!

Code Geass: Stage 1
Code Geass: Stage 2
Code Geass: Stage 3
Code Geass: Stage 4
Code Geass: Stage 5
Code Geass: Stage 6
Code Geass: Stage 7

I. Memeage.
( Ten LJ interests )
If you want: ask me about an LJ interest of mine, and I'll explain it.

II. Seme/uke roles: my thoughts. (But what are my thoughts on yaoi?) Also, how I classify characters in my various fandoms.
( tl;dr )
Okay, that's it for now. My next tl;dr fandom rambling will probably be about the difference I see in Fandom Bikes, Fandom Sluts, and Little Black Dresses.

III. Okay, guys. Once I've finished rereading/catching up on Bleach and catching up on D.Gray-man, Naruto, and Fate/stay night, what the hell do I read/watch next?
Poll #741873 Next!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

What should I watch/read next?