What I read in May 2013: Digest Version, part 2 of 4

b Devil and Her Love Song 8:  We wrap up the Anna arc here, leaving burning wreckage in her wake but also a little honesty.  Maria's forthrightness and sincerity have once again, in their own special way, caused the emotional breakdown and the flood of cathartic communicated feelings.  One of the worst bits of fallout is that Shin knows some terrible things he didn't before and has vowed that he will never have a romantic relationship with Maria because of the pain it will cause her.  With her usual bad timing, Maria has come to realize that she does not just want to stay friends and that she does want a romantic relationship with Shin, who is suddenly pulling away hard and not explaining himself.  As with all fiction, a lot of the problems could be solved by getting all the involved people into a room to actually be honest with each other, but that doesn't happen in real life, either.  Alas.  And how can you be honest about things like the bomb Shin got dropped on him.  Yikes.  Hang in there, folks!  (Also, Shin, when you are swearing that the way you will show your undying love is by taking your beloved's secret to the grave, it is best not to also reveal the secret because, you know, duh.)

b Earl and the Fairy 1-4:  So, there is a good premise here, maybe, but the execution is really all over the place.  Maybe they tried to adapt too much of the books, leaving it feeling splintered and poorly paced, giving me that good old Cliff's Notes whiplash from thing that happened in the book to other thing that happened in the book while also making me think things were dragging in certain places because the missing information would have made them more poignant.  So Lydia is this girl who can talk to fairies, and there's this surly Earl guy who kind of kidnaps her and drags her around for his own (nefarious?) reasons as a fairy interface.  He does not really believe in fairies, he claims.  He has a super-sad, dark past, and a couple of very dedicated servants that were a part of it, and he's dark and broody and guild-ridden and kind of a jerk, but sometimes he does nice-ish things for Lydia.  Did I mention the smart-mouthed, talking fairy cat?  It's like a cuter, fluffier version of the one in Natsume Yujincho, so there is some silver lining in this cloud.

b Grand Guignol Orchestra 4:More zombies, more music, more plot twists and revelations of mysterious pasts better left buried, more crazy horror dressed in lots of gothic fashion, heavy eye makeup, and a visual Kei aesthetic.  It must be Kaori Yuki.  And it is.  There is angst, androgyny, and zombie killing as only she can present it.