Selections from What I Read in November: Digest Version, Part 2 of 4

Well, now that the class I unwisely taught this semester (on top of my real full time job) is over, and I have scraped myself off the floor, I can get back to writing. 

• b Crimson Hero 14: More angst and volleyball.  Some folks make dumb decisions; others make smart ones.  Expiation via volleyball?  Bring it on.
• b D.Gray-Man 11: I do love the gorgeous gothicness of it all.
• o Diamond Girl 1:  Erm, I do want to read the next volume to find some things out, but I liked Princess Nine better.  I would have bought this series if CMX had kept publishing it because I always give sports manga love in the hopes that they'll bring more over here.
• b From Eroica with Love 15: Le Sigh.  I miss you, CMX.  A goofy and stupid story to go out on, but it came after a dangerous and stressful one, and it ended sort of neatly, so it was as good a place to end as any I could have hoped for.
• b Lapis Lazuli Crown 2: Goofy, sweet fun.  A happy ending.
• b My Darling Miss Bancho 1: This one was a total hoot.  A good steel plate in the school bag can come in handy.  The cast was goofy and fun, like a better drawn and completely different Cromartie High with a girl main character.
• b My Girlfriend's a Geek novel 1: I read some reviews of this one, and one talked about reasons he doubted the writer was really who and what he claimed to be for some reasons.  The reasons he disbelieved weren't the ones that made me suspicious.  (The thing that made me suspicious was the way the author knew all of the references and jokes that he did.  If he was only a very casual anime viewer, there's just no way he could have known some of these.)  That same reviewer complained about how it had a short and repetetive format.  This puzzled me.  If the blog was called My Fujoshi Girlfriend, why would you complain that every blog entry was about how much of a fujoshi his girlfriend was?  Sheesh.  I enjoyed the book.  Full of awkward and embarrassing moments in short chunks and packed with in-jokes and references.  I don't care if it was fiction, semi-autobiographical, or totally autobiographical.  It was entertaining.
• b Skip Beat! 21: Oh, the goofy, cursed joy of it all, and the frustration that it comes out sooooo verrrrrryyyyy sloooooowwwwlllyyyyy.
• b Suihelibe 1: Just pure sugary, silly goodness.
• b xxxHolic 16: Oh, so heartbreaking!  So sad!  You can tell by the expression on Watanuki's face on the cover. I want it to keep going, but I also want resolution (really excellent, well-done, well-earned resolution).  The way all the characters are so careful around each other is painful, as are some of the choices they've made.  Oh, how I love this series. I think I may need to marathon Tsubasa to figure out what exactly, you know, happened, but everything is still nicely melancholy whether you understand exactly or not.

I have some catching up to do, so I'll be posting a bunch this month unless some new crisis arises.  Until next time . . .  Read anything good lately?

Only fifteen (manga and anime edition)?

Brought to you by my friend J who spent over a year with me in RetailPurgatory a lifetime ago.

Name fifteen fictional characters (anime and/or manga) who’ve influenced you or will always stick with you. List the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

This one's hard for me because I'm an ensemble cast sort of person.  I often like whole casts of characters, and it's hard (sometimes impossible) to choose a favorite.  For this, let's say you can include an ensemble cast of a show or series if you want.

It's also hard because there's, oh, a couple hundred "favorites" I have to choose from, and no matter which ones I choose, I will feel inadequate for choosing them, and I will spend days stopping short at random places going, "Darg!  I should have said ____!"  But that's what comments are for.  :)

• Ash Lynx from Banana Fish
• The folks of Gundam
• Wolfwood from Trigun
• Folken from Escaflowne
• Harvey from the Kieli series
• The folks of Fruits Basket
• The folks of HunterxHunter
• The folks of Please Save My Earth
• The folks of Basara
• The folks of D.Gray-Man
• The folks of Cowboy Bebop
• The folks of Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex
• The folks of Emma
• The folks of Figure 17
• The folks of  X/1999
  
• Pretty much anyone voiced by Crispin Freeman :)

Better stop before I get to one hundred . . .

What about you?

Selections from What I Read in November: Digest Version, Part 1 of 4

• b Alive 2-5: Still fascinated by this one.  Not sure exactly where it's going but curious to find out.  I always like the early parts of stories that may end up in earned redemption.  Or no redemption, but I don't think DelRey usually published that kind.
• b Hikaru no Go 21: Well, I didn't see THAT coming.  Thank you for it, weasel boy.
• b Hollow Fields 1: Pretty darned fun.  I am totally tracking down the other two volumes, and they will also be fun.  I want a talking professor box.
• b Kekkaishi 23: Oh how I love thee!  Action, characters I like and can keep separate, humor, danger, intrigue, politics, interpersonal awkwardness . . .  All I can say is, you better not turn your sights on the youngest bro, bad guys.  It will be your doom . . .
• b Key to the Kingdom 6 of 6: Excellent all the way through.  Such a bittersweet ending.  Oh, man.  I really loved this one, despite the sometimes awful cover art.  (I miss you, CMX!)
• b Othello 1: Ahhh.  I remember why I liked this one so much.  If only it hadn't fitzed out/been cancelled and ended too abruptly.  But that's several volumes away, so I just enjoyed this one again.
• b Otomen 8: This series is so bad for my asthma when I'm exercising.  Seriously.
• b Spiral 13: Yes, I DO like Case Closed/Detective Conan, too, thank you very much.  And, yes, I did cry.
• b Stolen Hearts 1: Adorable.  Sad that I may never read the second volume.  (I miss you, CMX!)
• b Venus Capriccio 4: Well, it was the last volume published here, but it wasn't really an ending.  Fun times while it lasted.  (I miss you, CMX!)

Good times last month.

Hayate what?!

I kind of can't comprehend this.  I mean, I love Hayate way more than the next person (how many volumes in one month?!), but, still, a live action version?  Really?

"Next week’s issue of Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine will formally announce the development of a feature film adaptation of Kenjiro Hata’s popular Hayate no Gotoku ~ Hayate the Combat Butler manga series. Manglobe (Samurai Champloo, KamiNomi) will animate with experienced Manglobe animation director Hideto Komori taking charge. The comedy has previously been adapted into two anime television series and three OVAs. A Taiwanese live action TV series adaptation is also presently in development."

For those of you who don't know what it is, I liked this reviewer's thoughts.

"Hayate is truly meta-anime. It is anime comedy for the advanced anime enthusiast. The show's better jokes don't stand on their own very well but hinge on the viewer's prerequisite knowledge of anime and manga series going back several decades. I am simultaneously impressed, depressed, and disgusted with myself when I get the jokes because oh my god I have watched so much anime. When I laugh, I'm never sure if I should feel proud or if I've wasted my life."

Um, pretty much true.  Especially now that I'm into the newer stuff, which has jokes I actually get too many of . . .

The worst thing about getting the shiny, newest volume in a series you love

The worst thing about getting
the shiny, newest volume in a series you
love is that, if you have no self-control
and read it
right away,
then you have to wait
even
longer
for the next one.  Why
can't I embrace
a little delayed
gratification?!
I have only myself to blame.
April 5th?  Seriously?! Four
long months to go . . .

But how do you really feel? (another anime I'll have to see, thanks to bloggers)

Came across this today while printing out the last rough drafts of the semester (!) and now have another anime to add to close to the top of my massive list.  I have been in my cave a lot lately, and I am so far behind on what's happening in anime and manga that I didn't even know of Rainbow's existence.  Thanks to the kind souls who brought it to my attention.  I hope it will still be easily available when I have my life back after this class ends, since there doesn't seem to be a DVD release planned.  That's unfortunate; I already know I want to own this and rewatch it.  A lot.

"There are many otaku who can appreciate wackiness and excess, but an unsettling majority that I’ve met transform into 'tvtropes academics' whenever they encounter anime that eschews the zany and is unapologetically dramatic.  You’ll know these people when you meet them because they call story elements they don’t like plot holes, think categorizing something is the same thing as understanding it, and are generally dismissive without being substantive."  

I like this blogger (and not just because I do know those people; note the excellent grammar, helpful explanation and analysis, and clear, intelligent writing).

And then, when I was testing the link above, I saw that he posted about my comment on Twitter.  "My blog post about the Rainbow anime is still getting hits. Thanks themooninautumn, you made my day."

Well, you made mine, too.  You and the Manga Curmudgeon who sent me your way.  Thanks to you both!