What I read in June 2013: Digest Version, part 3 of 3

b Loveless 1,3: I have very little self control.  When there is a Manga Moveable Feast, if I make the mistake of reading any of the posts, I always end up re-reading part of the topic.  And loving it.  And feeling guilty.  Oh, man, things were so simple in these early volumes even though they were incredible mysterious and complicated.  Soubi is a very puzzling character.  He can be very mature, he can be kind, he's ruthless enough to put himself through a lot of pain to beat the Zeroes, but then he takes them home and takes care of them.

b One Pound Gospel 1-4: This is the story of a boxer with promise but no self-discipline where food comes in and his quest to win the affection of a lovely neighborhood nun-in-training.  Yeah, it's a tad wacky, more Maison Ikkoku Lite than InuYasha, and it's not really a sports manga at all, but it was amusing.  Each fight has some weird constraint or bargain or lesson, and my favorite is probably the one where the opponent has a huge tattoo of the Virgin Mary on his chest, and Kosaku is told by the head nun that he's not allowed to punch the tattoo or else.

"You've taken my tacos from me.  Boxing is all I have left!"

b Saiyuki Reload 8:This is a tough but good volume, where the crew is split up, and a city of humans scheming to steal more from the youkai who lived there first uses some of them to their own ends.  It's pretty much sad the whole way through as powerful people manipulate the fear in people's hearts and inflame it into hatred, and horrors that cannot be taken back are committed, perpetuating a cycle of revenge that might only end when no one is left standing.  Poor Goku is helpless to stop things.

"It's not about human or youkai.  Or whose side I'm on.  This's about what's important to me."

b Skip Beat! 31: Oh, things are tense as Ren dives deep into his role as a psycho, so deep that he kind of nearly kills a co-star.  Kyoko talks him down and pacifies the director and tries to figure out what she's supposed to do to help him when he's in such obvious and (to her) inexplicable agony.

b Slam Dunk 9:Guess what?  There is some basketball in this volume.  There's a lot more drama off the court, though, as someone who once turned his back on the sport tries to get back in the groove and become part of the team he was somewhat responsible for beating the crap out of in recent volumes.  And it's tourney time!  Can their new line-up blow away the competition?

b W Juliet 10-11, 13: Summer camp brings Ito back in contact with a childhood bully, and he's crushing on her hard.  She has some trouble telling him she's already taken, and Makoto gets jealous.  On the home front, things come to a head with the weird American girl who's obsessed with Ryuya.  Can she manage to score a point off Papa Miura to avoid having to leave Ryuya and go back to America?

Then more trouble on the homefront as youngest Miura Tatsuyoshi has enough of being picked on and snaps.  Yuko and Akane have some rough moments, but they finally say what they need to say.  Makoto's oldest sister who eloped to get away from their father is in town, and Ito can't help meddling to try to get the family to reconcile.  Then there's a bit about how people always think Ito and her best friend Yoshiro are dating when Yoshiro has already publically confessed his love to Misaki.  Then it's costumes and cultural festivals and sabotage.  Then other stuff happens in volume 12, which I don't have.

In volume 13, Ito ends up spending some accidental quality time with Makoto's hated father.  She does her best to work her usual magic.  Graduation is coming up, and Makoto and Ito are auditioning to try to find employment once they graduate, but Ito gets really sick and has a terrible audition, but she impresses the scary director, and they both get in.  Then it's the big reveal as Ito gets in trouble, and Mako gets caught with his hair off by one of her brothers, and things start to fall apart.

"Manga is about being entertaining, not being realistic." 98

Good to know.

What I read in June 2013: Digest Version, part 2 of 3

b Dawn of the Arcana 10: By golly, yes, they did go there.  I sort of expected some kind of Loki-enabled intervention, but I forgot this is the series where they totally killed off a pretty major antagonist far earlier than I expected (and made it hurt the reader more than expected).  It turns out that she didn't make the decision, though, which makes me a bit glad because that would have been really hard for Nakaba.  And then everything falls apart.  Nakaba and Caesar return to their respective kingdoms where they divorce each other and start pursuing the same future even though they are separated: they want peace in their generation, and they will lie, scheme, and kill for it if they have to.  A dangerous game, and they're both growing up fast playing it.

b Grand Guignol Orchestra 5:of 5:  The end is nigh!  Hooray!  We'll maybe sort of find out at least part of what is going on, right?  Then again, this is Kaori Yuki; viva style over substance! More goth costumes, more zombies, more treachery and tragedy and sorrow and songs.  Maybe some folks even make it to the end alive?

b Kamisama Kiss 9:Our heroine is actually thinking for once, and she's realized that her loving Tomoe might not be good for Tomoe.  But then they end up on Tengu mountain, and wow.  Their tengu pop star acquaintance has had a visit from a little brother telling of bad times on the mountain.  He doesn't care, but Nanami does (and she's curious to know about his past).  The mountain (where women are kind of forbidden) isn't exactly welcoming, but Nanami is determined to figure out what's going on and help whether they want her to or not.

b Kieli: The Dead Sleep Eternally in the Wilderness, Part I: Oh, the end is nigh, and I'm thinking it won't be a particularly happy one for anyone involved.  Kieli meets her father and finds out a lot of very sad truths while things start to spin out of control in the capital.  Joachin continues to be something of an enigma with his seemingly random acts of strange kindness.  I think I may go through and re-read from the beginning when the last volume comes out, so I can remember everything, but that will require copious puddles of sunlight in the winter time, which might mean that I actually put it off until next summer, when I can bathe in sunlight while reading through all the horror and sadness again. 

"He was supposed to be the great wall of evil blocking her path.  It wasn't okay for him not to be.. . . [I]t wasn't okay  for the ringleader behind all kinds of unforgivable things, Kieli's most hated enemy, to be just an exhausted, normal man like that.  The people Kieli loved had been tormented all this time because of a stupid little enemy like this?" 144

"So normal human beings . . . Are allowed to let other people help them?  Oh.  Huh." 163

"Yup, I'm fighting a lot of losing battles right now, so I'm pretty pathetic." 207

b The Last Airbender Prequel: Zuko's Story: I am still slightly bitter about many things about the Last Airbender movie (especially the revamping of Uncle Iroh), but I do like additional bits of backstory.  It hurts the brain a little to try to reconcile both versions of the story, but at least one can see that although Iroh's appearance was changed in the movie, he's really still the same character.

What I read in June 2013: Digest Version, part 1 of 3

b 07Ghost 1-4: Holy unexpected license rescue, Batman!  This series is still kind of a sloppy mess, but the story underneath all the slop is compelling enough that I will support this license rescue and learn all the names again in this different translation.  Teito gets better acquainted with his inner Mikhail and then loses his Eye.  He decides to take the test to enter the clergy anyway, and he and his new friend (the nice Oak guy) train and team up and do their best.  Unfortunately, the church is attacked while the test is going on.  Will Teito even have time to pass the test before the church is blasted down around him?  You have to wait until the next volume to find out.

b Ai No Kusabi 8:So I read volume 7 and was told volume 8 was the last, and I was trying to figure out how it could possibly end that quickly with all the threads it had outstanding and without being some stupid, cop-out, fake-y happy ending.  Instead, it kept on its determined course, ignored lots of dangly bits, buckled down and focused, and continued to the end of its path, turned the tragedy on 150%.  This has always been a really dark series, with two protagonists who loved each other but were ill-equipped to realize it or do anything even remotely positive about it.  I wanted them to be happy, as I do all folks in love, but it just didn't seem in the cards.  In the end, I guess they sort of were as happy as it was possible for them to be.  Bitter, bittersweet ending.

"He could hope.  All I have to do is not quit."

"It might break your heart, but there's love that can only be expressed the way they lived it."

b Ai Ore! 4:Uh-oh!  The power-crazed student council president finds out the our heroine is dating a boy from a crappy school.  So what does she do?  Lock her up without pants, of course!  (I have no idea sometimes.)  When her boyfriend Akira finds out, he's on a mission to reform his school and prove that it's not completely full of total losers.  Except that it sort of is, and extreme measures have to be taken to make the place more respectable.  New character: Banbi is this huge, facially-scarred, quiet guy who turns out to be a really nice rich boy also tired of being judged by his thug-like appearance.  I am a big fan of Banbi because he has NO CREEPY INTENTIONS towards Akira, which is unfortunately refreshing . . .

b Boys Over Flowers 34-36 of 36: Yuki ends up in a unique position: she can give Sojiro another chance with the (only) girl he (ever) loved, which she does because she really loves him (and wants what's good for him even if it makes her miserable).  While it turns out that Sojiro doesn't love the girl any more, he still gets a proper chance at closure.  Then he decides to start being a player again, and Yuki is first in line . . .  Err . . .  I give up.  Anyway, Tsukasa's father collapses, and his one year grace period sort of evaporates.  He's  leaving, but he can't quite find the right moment to tell Tsukushi, so things are awkward as he keeps screwing up and she keeps freaking out.  He keeps asking her to marry him, and she keeps dodging the question, so when he makes the public announcement that he'll be moving to the United States for college, he promises he'll come back for her when he graduates.  They have one last day together, and maybe one last night, but Tsukushi ends up falling in a pool and getting a fever, and Tsukasa doesn't push it.  Then it's time for prom and graduation, and Tsukushi's parents lose their jobs again, so she might not get to go back for her senior year (not that she's terribly disappointed).  Her family moves on the day of the prom, and her dress gets ripped, so she shows up all sweaty and bruised from moving and in her civvies.  She gets one last dance with the guys, which is kind of a hoot.  Her family also decides to work their tails off to make sure she can keep going to Eitoku, and she decides the same thing because there are people waiting for her there.  To close things out, there's a lovely little short about Akira and some of the crap he's had to put up with keeping things in balance for the F4.  Oh, Rui Hanazawa, you are still pretty great, and I wish she'd chosen you.

"In four years from now, if you come back a good man, I could make you very happy!"

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

b Strobe Edge 3-4: More young infatuation and love geometry as we get to know Ren's girlfriend a bit more and get a feel for their relationship.  Ren's friends notice that he acts differently around Ninako, but they're divided as to whether they should bring this fact to his attention.  And Ando is falling for Ninako more as she pines away for Ren while trying to keep a friendship going.  Uniquely, one of Ren's friends has a lot of good insight for another of his friends who wants to "help" by getting Ren to see he likes Ninako romantically.  And then there's Daiki (Ninako's childhood friend).  His parents have been divorced for a long time, and now one of them is getting remarried, which could mean a move just when he's found a girlfriend he really cares about.  He's always tried to support his dad, but should he stay where he is instead?  Kind of a realistic question for a lot of kids these days.  Overall, I really like this series.  It has lots of heart-pounding moments and some very sad moments that feel somewhat realistic.  For some reason, it just feels very refreshing, and very few people are painted as bad guys, and you just want everyone to be happy.
"But I guess I was wrong."
"Huh?  You're actually admitting you did something wrong?"
"Cherish the moment."

"My policy is to never replace anything unless it's well and truly broken beyond repair.  I won't let anything go until I'm 100% positive that it's kaput.  It's a combination of laziness and frugality."

b Until Death Do Us Part 2: More adrenaline-laced, violent adventures brought to you by a young teen who can see the future and the guardian she chose (a blind vigilante with a katana and the aid of technology to help him fight).  There are tactical ops; there is carnage.  There is a savvy police detective who's always barely on the edge of being fired because he's too flexible and competent to really fit in Japan.  There are really bad guys.
"I see.  So the future doesn'a always mean 'good things.'  There's always the possibility that your only choices range from 'bad' to 'worse.'  I guess I never really considered that seeing the future could be such a painful thing."

"Isn't preventing crime the entire point of this organization?"
"Th-that's right, but the most important part of that is making sure that it never happens again."
"Which is why I'm making sure to put the fear of ME into 'em.  I want them scared straight."

b The Wallflower 13:I can never get over how ugly the art is in this series.  It's just an aesthetic I do not subscribe to.  It's still pretty funny, though, in a sit-com way.  Sunako just wants to keep living in the darkness, and the boys just want free rent (which they can get if they turn her into a lady).  Her aunt (the landlady) shows up in this volume and is every bit as ridiculous and over the top as every other character.  She's a rich, fashionable, gorgeous woman who is absolutely nothing like Sunako.  It's pretty touching how much they really love each other despite that.  I enjoyed the cursed jewel gag (it sort of ends up afraid of/at odds with Sunako).

What I read in May 2013: Digest Version, part 3 of 4

b Kimi ni Todoke 11-15: Oh, dear, well, once they're together, they get to experience all sorts of new and awkward problems.  It's meet the dad time, and Sawako's dad is hilarious (her mom is pretty great, too).  Kazehaya wants to do right by her, but it might be problematic to add on Sawako's father's desire to protect his daughter on top of Kazehaya 's already heavy sense of duty.  On the Chizu front, Ryu is playing the long game, and Chizu is, well, recovering from the loss of her first love and being generally dense about Ryu's feelings for her.   There's also a really adorable flashback about how Chizu and Ayane met and became friends (with hilarious guest appearance/help from Ryo).  Then it's back at Kazehaya as Sawako meets his parents and little brother.  His baseball nut dad and little brother and entire baseball team are a hoot.  Then it's time for the class trip, and the girls buy special underwear, and then Ayane teases Kazehaya about it.  Everyone is teasing Kazehaya about "how far they've gone" or want to go physically, and Kazehaya is pretty miffed.  Chizu finds out there's someone Ryu likes (but doesn't realize it's her).  Ayane goes out with a guy who ends up just being interested in her body, and she's really devastated when it ends, even though she didn't really like him and was just hoping that his affection would make her care about him.  She finds an unexpected shoulder to cry on.  Pin is like the bad-relationship-advice fairy throughout these trials.  Kazehaya tries to deal with his self-control (he's great at it but lousy at dealing with expectations and communicating with Sawako), and Sawako is really new to all of this.  As Kazehaya pulls away from her to protect her from himself, she doesn't understand what's happening and doesn't know what to do.  Yech.  Will all the threads be untangled?  Probably, eventually, yeah.  Looking forward to seeing how.

"If I were you, I would have done the same thing.  There aren't any right words to say."

"If you know the problem, you tend to look for someone else to blame."

"Your dad is really fatherly!!  He's different from my dad.  Your dad is more dignified."
"Dignified?! I guess you could call it that.  I thought my dad was just mean."

"People date other people because they like them.  I have never liked someone.  I have never dated someone because I liked them."

b Pandora Hearts 16:Oh, Pandora Hearts, again, you twist and turn and break my heart.  More mysteries, more betrayals, more reversals.  How much longer can Oz keep it together?  And what horrible truths will get thrown on him next?  Is there any way that there could be a happy ending for anyone at the end of all this? 

b Saturn Apartments 6-7 of 7: I held off on reading 6 until 7 came out because I couldn't bear the wait for the conclusions.  There were so many ways things could have gone . . .  And I can't spoil this, but I was more pleased than not with the ending.  It did feel a bit rushed, and people didn't always make the choices I thought they would, and there was some tragedy and triumph.  I liked the series, and I was glad that it ended on the notes it did.  If you like slice-of-life with an overarching plot and science fiction and coming-of-age stories, give it a try.  You might be pleased.

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.

What I read in May 2013: Digest Version, part 1 of 4

b Bride's Story 4: Two rambunctious twin girls do their best to steal the show a bit in this volume.  They are not particularly demure and sort of come as a set, so they aren't particularly marriageable, and they worry that their father (who is not wealthy) is not doing enough to find them husbands.  There's a cute and awkward set of quasi romances that end well.  Meanwhile, our sociologist POV character ends up getting pulled into their little dramas and then serving as a doctor all while he needs to be getting to the border before hostilities between his home country and the aggressive neighbors make him a target.  And the drama that played out in the first and second books when the original female lead's clan decided they wanted to take her back after marrying her off is coming back around and could lead to bloodshed or peace.  It's 100% sociological slice-of-life fiction set in a meticulously researched and rendered Asian setting.  I adore the art and the culture, and I will follow it wherever it meanders.

b Bunny Drop 8:The end is nigh, and there are choices that are becoming more and more clear.  I'm spoiled on the ending, so I may not be as horrified as some folks on the internet, and, of course, since I don't read trying to figure out what will happen, I don't get as cynical about certain kinds of plot points.  I just enjoy the cute, sweet story and wince as it unfolds with some of the awkwardness of reality.

b Cross Game 8 of 8: This volume really brings home the fact that this series is primarily a drama and only secondarily a sports story.  Facts and scores and stats and results that would be pretty vital in a sports story just don't matter.  Not that the games are boring or short-changed; it's just that they're the backdrop against which many dramas are playing out.  I love the tension and the understated nature of so much that happens here.  Plot advancement comes sideways through sometimes seemingly unrelated conversations, not through loud and clear declarations of intent.  The subtlety is really very refreshing.  I really wish I were able to read stories like Touch that I've heard about, but I am really pleased I was able to read (and own) another series by Mitsuru Adachi.  He's just good at telling stories that have sports in them but never lose focus on the human drama.

b Dengeki Daisy 12:The plan to rescue Rena is executed, and it is full of tension and hilarity.  Evil bad guy mastermind is, of course, just a pawn, but taking him down feels mighty good.  And maybe, just maybe, the mastermind makes an appearance?  Or is he just a higher level pawn?  We don't know, but Kurosaki is kind of a wreck after crossing paths with him.  Instead of freaking out and retreating into himself and doing something dumb and repeating the cycle, he brings it to the attention of the gang.

What I read in April 2013: Digest Version, part 3 of 3

b Kamisama Kiss 8:While I find the romantic premise still a bit stupid and forced, it's a romance, so you kind of just have to accept that and move on.  Because there's a lot of silly weirdness to enjoy.  "I didn't expect to go for a freezing swim in the land of the dead.  My shoes feel icky."  Our heroine ends up in the land of the dead with an evil spirit inhabiting and preserving the dead body of a teenage boy.  She has to figure out how to rescue him and get out before the land of the dead kills her.  

b Pandora Hearts 2:Oh, these were simpler times, when Oz first met people who will be important later, when he finds out who "Raven" really is, before things get really, horribly, incredibly, amazingly, devastatingly messy later on.  Before all the astounding plot twists and turns and reversals.  When things were only a little mysterious and there were only a few questions to pursue.  It made me a little nostalgic. 

b Story of Saiunkoku 9: Some more excellent insight into the complicated Hong family situation (such as why Shoka and Shurei are so poor).  Poor Shoka.  Seriously.  He never got a break, not even as a kid.  Some adorable flashbacks to little Shoka, Reishin and Kuro.  Reishin and Kuro overhear a lot they aren't supposed to, and Reishin tells Kuro to forget it.  Maybe he does?  Anyway, their interactions as adults are really kind of painful to see, living, as they do, in such a mannered and rule-bound culture.  We get some insight into the Ran clan, as well, with the return of the flamboyant Ran brother.  : )

b Strobe Edge 2: More adorable not-quite romance and splashes of humor.  What do you do after you kind of confess to a boy only to find out he has a girlfriend he is committed to, and you want to still be friends?  You try to act normal.  If you are Ninako, this is really a struggle.  Ren is not nearly as expressive or impulsive, so he hides it better.  Ando also moves onto the stage.  He's a girl-loving playboy to hide his wounded soul.  "Even if the person you love loves someone else, you still love them.  You can't help it.  That's what love is to me."  Will Ren and Ninako ever get together?  Will Ando ever have a healthy relationship?  And what about poor Ninako's childhood friend who has a crush on her?  Will he get a happy ending? 

What I read in April 2013: Digest Version, part 2 of 3

b Dawn of the Arcana 7-9: So.  Having knowledge of what might happen in the future can REALLY SUCK.  It can interfere with your relationships, your sanity, and your life.  Nakaba's starting to really see this.  She's also struggling to figure out who she can trust.  She thought she could trust Loki, but she knows he's hiding a lot, and she's not sure what his ultimate goal is.  She's increasingly in love with Caesar, but their awful family situations make really trusting him difficult.  Some sad deaths here and some scheming and some ally-gathering lay the foundation for what's to come, but sometimes the pacing seems to drag because things stew rather than move forward.  It certainly has its tensions, such as the cliffhanger ending of volume 9 when Nakaba is faced with the choice of which of two people she must allow to die.  Fans of non-stop action, adventure, and intrigue may yawn a bit, but why would they be reading this particular shojo manga in the first place?  Anyway, it still has promise, and I will definitely keep reading to see if that promise is ever kept.  : )

b Drops of God: New World: In an effort to try to boost sales, Vertical skipped several volumes of the story to place us in the arena of New World Wines.  You will be pleased to know that the hilariously over-the-top descriptions and illustrations are still present.  I may never drink wine, and if I do, I will never be able to taste it like this.  Viva la fiction!  I can get some of the experience (despite my too-oft-broken nose and allergy problems that prevent me from smelling or tasting much of anything) and none of the hangover or alcohol-tastingness of the whole endeavor.  There is mystery, intrigue, competition, ridiculousness, wine-related gang violence, and extreme environmentalism.  What is not to like?!  If you want to see a volume 2 (and maybe a fill-in of the skipped volumes), do what you can to help this one sell really well.  : )

b Ghost Hunt4-5: The problem with reading Ghost Hunt is that it really makes you frustrated that it stopped being published here, and I have no way of knowing where they were going with the tantalizing bits of info on Naru's past.  Anyway, this is early, when all you get are little hints that he's more than what he appears to be.  The stories are creepy and contain unexplained phenomena (shockingly).  I really wish the rest of this series or the novels it was based on could be released because I really want to know what happens (especially with Naru's past and his divergent dream and real life personalities).

b Jiu Jiu 2: Well, the puppies are growing up, and they're accompanying their master to school and there are demon killing, wacky hijinks, impractical attire, suggestive art, time apart, touching moments, and moping.  The art is still really different with its heavy ink and oddly proportioned characters.  It's a bit of a chaotic mess in all ways, but I'm curious about where it's going and where it will end up.

What I read in April 2013: Digest Version, part 1 of 3

o AI Ore! 3:I can really see why this series makes some readers uncomfortable.  It's hard to get behind a love interest who uses more than just the verbal threat of rape to "punish" another character who had something similar in mind.  Just, not okay, dude.  Not okay.  Maybe he'll become a better person as time passes?  Then again, this is Mayu Shinjo, so who knows what THAT would even mean.

b Black Butler 12-13: An ocean voyage complicated by the undead tests our characters in ways they have not been tested before.  It shows that the author, Yana Toboso, is an artist who actually understands human anatomy (weeping tears of joy).  It also shows that she's not afraid to toss in some awesome reversals, as we discover that Elizabeth IS actually more than annoying and sympathetic eye candy.  She, like all the people in her family (particularly all the women), is a master of the sword, and she saves Ciel's keister several times (reluctantly because she thought he wouldn't love her if she was strong enough to slay zombies when he couldn't).  This was actually very refreshing.  She kind of drives me crazy because she seems so irritating and pointless when you can't imagine that she could possibly be what she appears to be for 12. Whole. Volumes.  To find that there IS a reason she was engaged to a Phantomhive and that there is a real, adorable reason she's been hiding it (because when they were little, Ciel was scared of strong women who could use swords and totally beat the snot out of older and larger men and was unaware that Lizzie was one such person).  And, yes, I found it adorable because it's the sort of thing kids do/remember that scars them for longer than it should.  "I'm fine with not being cute if it means I can protect you!"

Anyway, things heat up a bit as the Reapers make their usual flamboyant appearance and give Sebastian lots of added trouble.  AND A HUGE AND WELCOME FLASHBACK, holy cow.  The covenant they made, how they interacted and learned their roles, why "Sebastian" (Ciel named him after his dog), how they found their footing with each other (HINT: Sebastian had a lot more to deal with than he bargained for).  GOOD STUFF.  "He wished three things of me.  To protect him without betrayal until his revenge came to fruition.  To obey his commands without question.  And to never tell lies."

b CrossGame 7: Oh, CrossGame, how I love thee.  Humor, pathos, sports, slices of life, thoughtfulness, one last shot at Koshien.  I want to know how it all ends, but I don't want it to end.  (Sign of a series/book I am really enjoying.)

"If worrying would make her better, I'd worry night and day for as long as it takes."

"Some things you gotta do.  Other things, you can only have faith."

"I'm a good liar."
"Even if it was a lie, it made me happy."

What I watched in Spring 2013: Digest Version, part 2 of 2

b House of Five Leaves: The most laid back period show about ronin samurai ever.  There is some action and a certain amount of suspense and intrigue (and a wildly anachronistic soundtrack heavy on Italian/Mediterranean accordion music).  The main character is a seriously timid samurai who has severe social anxiety issues.  He's not actually bad with a sword; he just can't really use it when lots of people are watching him in a real-life situation.  He ends up catching the eye of a mysterious criminal who drags him into his kidnapping business.  As time passes, this criminal's past starts catching up to him.  I think I prefer the manga because the ending is very different and feels more consistent and because there are more interesting sub-plots and more character development.  The anime is sleeker, trimming away the extra plot threads (mostly) and turning on different circumstances and choices.  The art in both is, well, very Natsume Ono, which means it's distinctive, startling, and sometimes hard to get used to.  Even though no one really leaves, there's a relaxed, road trip vibe.  It's a good time, and the character interaction is entertaining.

b Ristorante Paradiso:  Another Natsume Ono story, this one takes place in modern-ish Italy.  It follows a young lady (whose mother abandoned her in order to marry a man who didn't want a woman with a child) as she plots her revenge on the mother she doesn't know.  Except then she meets her mother, and her planned revenge just sort of falls apart as she falls in love with the restaurant her mother's husband runs which has a staff made of up middle-aged men with glasses.  She also starts to fall for one of said middle-aged wait staff and ends up helping out as a kitchen assistant.  This series is also very laid back as it meanders around the lives of folks involved with the restaurant.  If you are looking for resolution or something to really happen, just don't.  Enjoy the ride and try to control the food cravings.

b Steins;Gate: WHOA.  It has bits of gosh-wow fantastic science-fiction increasingly crushed by that pesky time paradox/morality problem.  It has some moments of ridiculous otaku fanservice and episodes of unrelentingly dark moral quandries.  It has murder, mystery, romance, and a main character who has adopted a personna to annoy people around him.  I cannot really explain what makes this show great, but I was hanging on by my fingertips most of the way, and I found the ending to be incredibly well-done.  Excellent voice acting and sometime excellent plotting (it twists, it turns, you NEVER thought it would go there, holy cow).  I suspect it might be a good show to marathon because lots of details MATTER in a way that they don't in most other shows, but some of the characters are reeeeally awkward and might get on one's nerves in larger doses.  Good stuff.

What I watched in Spring 2013: Digest Version, part 1 of 2

b Bunny Drop:  This series is touching and adorable, which is unexpected given how it starts with a funeral.  After the funeral, a 30-something bachelor ends up taking guardianship of his recently deceased grandfather's surprise  5-year-old love child, mostly because he can't stand the way his relatives are being mean where she can hear them.  Of course, his whole life changes as he switches his focus from himself only to a dependent little stranger.  Dwaaaaaw.  (For those who have read the series, the anime version only covers the parts where Rin is little.)  I want to see the live-action version (Usagi Drop), as well, partly because Kenichi Matsuyama plays Daikichi, and I am familiar with his TOTALLY DIFFERENT work in Detroit Metal City, DeathNote, and Nana and want to see how seamlessly he creates and disappears into this role.  It's legally viewable on Crunchyroll and released physically by NIS America.

b Chihayafuru: I believe this story was originally published in a josei magazine, but the anime is like the best kind of sports series, which it is.  The sport?  Karuta.  It's a competitive card game involving poetry and lightning fast reflexes.  (Probably only in Japan would such a thing exist.)  I cannot tell you how much fun I had with this series.  It starts with Chihaya, a lovely young woman who is abnormally obsessed with Karuta.  She is determined to start a club at her high school, so they can compete as a team in tournaments, so she can someday meet up again with the kid who introduced her to the game years ago and lit the fire in her to become the best karuta player in the world.  She gathers her team (sometimes by bullying and force), pulling her childhood friend back into the competitive world and causing all kinds of trouble along the way.  You seriously have to see people playing this game.  It's amazing.  It's legally viewable on Crunchyroll and well worth a watch.

What I watched in MAY: Digest Version, part 2 of 2

b Seikai Ichi Hatsukoi (World's Greatest First Love):  The main character disengaged from the world back in high school when the boy he loved laughed at him after they slept together.  I don't think I've ever seen an anime where this disengagement was quite so clearly and realistically shown.  He uses super-ultra polite language all the time to push people away.  No one is allowed to get close to him.  It's intriguing. 

Anyway, he's been like that for years.  Recently, he left his job at his father's publishing company where he was an editor with a string of hit books.  He wanted to work at a company where he would get some respect for his hard work instead of having to deal with all the snide comments about nepotism getting him the good authors.  He's surprised when instead of getting hired in the literary department, he ends up in the shojo manga division.  And his boss is . . . that guy who broke his heart a decade ago.  The thing is, his memory of the event and the actual event might not be very similar. 

I like the idea explored here of the way our emotional baggage can really cause us problems.  Each of the two boys saw the situation and its aftermath completely differently.  At its heart, it was a communication problem, and since it was never resolved, it left them both wounded.  Anyway, there was less creepiness in this series than in the author's other series I've read part of (Junjo Romantica), although the anime was a very cleaned up version of the manga there.  The consistent device of having a couple of minor stories running at the same time drives me somewhat crazy in this author's work because when the main story is moving, I don't want a stupid side episode about people I don't care about.   

Watching the two main characters try to cope with and define their relationship in the present as they try to figure out what happened in the past is an awkward good time.  Watching one character learn the ins and outs of editing shojo manga is kind of a hoot, too.

What I watched in MAY 2013: Digest Version, part 1 of 2

b Hare + Guu: This show is delightfully, darkly wacky.  Hare's young mom is a carefree, cheerful, alcoholic slob, and he's a bit stressed from having to be the adult.  Sometimes he thinks his life is pretty bad.  Then he meets Guu, and she proceeds to show him that he had no idea what stress is.  There is lots of hilarious ranting as Hare tries to keep Guu from eating his friends and family and tries to deal with the consequences of her deadpan shenanigans.  Oh, the hyper drama.  Some of these voice performances are amazing. : )

b Pumpkin Scissors: A military drama set in a post-war world where a young and idealistic but strong officer and a somewhat motley crew of enlisted men try to stamp out old corruption left over from the war and new corruption springing up in the economic depression it left in its wake.  There are a lot of conflicts including military factions, class issues, and information control.  The main source of conflict comes from a hulking soldier who was used in experiments during the war and struggles with his abilities as a fearless/brainless killer and his desire to contribute positively to peace time.  Another anime based on a light novel series that I really want to read, this one has a semi-decent conclusion for an ongoing series, but mostly it just leaves intriguing threads dangling.  There are some very good performances on the English dub. 

"The Lieutenant is not the be-all, end-all, damn it!"
---
"I'm a noble, so I always have to be alone."

What I watched in APRIL 2013: Digest Version, part 2 of 2

b From Up on Poppy Hill: A lovely, enjoyable, slice-of-life sort of movie.  Gorgeous on the big screen with its hills and coastline.  This is a studio Ghibli film, directed by the famous Miyazaki's son (and apparently much better than his last one).  The dub was great, too.

b Magic Users' Club: This mostly light-hearted and goofy fantasy series starts with one of the most ridiculously-shaped alien invasion ever and continues in general ridiculous, over-the-topness, and sometimes realistically awkward romantic geometric shapes.  I really enjoyed it and found it a fun thing to play in the background as I assembled and organized a massive amount of medical records into a PHR.  (You really need something funny when you are doing this.)  The dub suffers from sounds-like-they-recorded-this-in-a-tiled-bathroom syndrome but is generally pretty serviceable and sometimes a total hoot.

b Strawberry Marshmallow 1: Bwahahaha.  So cute.  Makes me happy.  I really enjoyed it and found it a fun thing to play in the background as I assembled and organized a massive number of medical records into a coherent PHR.  (You really need something funny when you are doing this.)

b Zatch Bell!, 10: Oh, big brother Kanchome.  And Folgore.  And everything.  What a fun, ridiculous show.  I really enjoyed it and found it a fun thing to play in the background as I assembled and organized a massive number of medical records into a coherent PHR.  (You really need something funny when you are doing this.)

What I watched in APRIL 2013: Digest Version, part 1 of 2

b Ghost Slayers Ayakashi: Finally managed to track down a cheap copy of Part 2.  This is a quirky series, consciously starring a middle-aged protagonist and a weird cast of characters.  The dub has some really shining moments (a great and unusual performance from Crispin Freeman is a delightful highlight), the plot is episodic with an overarching story that ends tragically in some OVAs (not tragic on the level of, say, Wolf's Rain, but still a bummer), and there is some really weird stuff in here.  It mixes history with fantasy and mythology, and I like it.

b Pandora Hearts: It started in giggles and ended in tears. Even if it didn't get to end like the graphic novels will, it still managed to get that part right.  Pandora Hearts is the story of a boy named Oz, who, on the day of his ceremony to become an adult, ends up attacked by mysterious cloaked figures who say his very existence is a sin and send him to the Abyss, where he meets a girl called Alice who makes a contract with him, so they can both escape.  When they get back to the real world, 10 years have passed there, and they band together with some shady characters from an organization named Pandora to track down Alice's memories and figure out who the cloaked people were and exactly what Oz's sin is supposed to be . . .  Towards the end, it veers off pretty sharply from the ongoing manga series, but it managed a somewhat decent ending, so kudos to it.

What I watched in MARCH 2013: Digest Version

b Shonen Onmyouji: Okay, there was this period when Geneon USA was circling the toilet when they started doing these horrifically, ruinously bad offshore dubs.  This is one of those dubs.  Unfortunately, when I was watching this show, I was busy gathering medical records and stuff, so I didn't have the time to watch it in Japanese with English subtitles while not gathering  medical records.  So I think the show is better than my English-dub impression of it.  It must be or everyone would hate it instead of just 50% of the people.  It's the story of a boy and his dog-like spirit companion.  This boy is the grandson of a famous spiritualist, but he's notorious mostly for having no spiritual powers AT ALL.  Then he meets up with this critter, and his life changes, and he discovers his real powers and meets a girl and has all these weird adventures involving the mythology of the Japanese spiritual world.  Did I mention the dub is really bad?

"What good is love if the fireflies aren't real?"

b Taisho Baseball Girls: This cute little series about junior high girls who form a baseball team for various reasons is short and sweet.  The team interactions are fun and cute for the most part, and you respect their grit and determination and the troubles they face.  It's also a fun glimpse at an interesting time in Japanese history as East and West collide and traditional views of womanhood seem on the verge of changing.

b You're Beautiful: So, I had a certain amount of expectation built up for this show.  It more and less met these expectations.  There were some surprises in the end, but it was a good experience over all.  One of the most interesting parts was actually the extras.  Some of these folks are really quite good at acting.  In real life some of them are very different.  The female lead and the happy-chipper dude (Blondie in Sarah's review that started it all) are SO DIFFERENT, I was floored.  The DVD box set seems somewhat impossibly priced out of print, but you can watch it legally streaming at Amazon.

What I watched in FEBRUARY 2013: Digest Version, part 2 of 2

b Ronin Warriors OVA: Yep, the Ronin Warriors in New York City in the 80s.  SO 80S!  The dub?  AWESOME!!!  "The pain will be unbearable.  I suggest you lose consciousness." - a villain  SO MUCH AWESOME CHEESINESS THE MIND BOGGLES.  The other set is full of wonky ethnic stereotypes and semi-hilarious mysticism.

b The Third: The Girl with the Blue Eye: Two thumbs enthusiastically up.  Excellent dub!  I liked that actress' work in Piano as a secondary character, so I'm glad to see she got a leading role and really nailed it.  And there was more of a finished story there than your average based-on-a-light-novel anime adaptation.  I'll definitely be watching it again.

b Tweeny Witches: This show is a pretty great one to listen to in the background as you do other things.  Don't get me wrong; the visuals are weird and creepy and interesting and well worth watching, but the English dub is pretty fun and lets you follow the story well enough.  Arisu is a normal girl who believes in magic, and then she gets sucked into a magical world, and she turns it on its ear through the power of positive thinking.  Kind of.  It gets pretty dark sometimes, but it's ultimately hopeful.

b Xam'd: So it sort of falls apart in the end, but you almost don't care because of the trippy journey it takes to get there.  I think maybe if I watch it 2 more times, I will get it.  Maybe.  I wish it had been a 39 episode show.  I think it might have been able to be more complete in all its varied storylines and thus been a tad more coherent.  They did a decent job with Eureka7, but that one fell apart a bit in the end, as well.  They both sort of choked on their own mysterious mythology.  But were awesome just the same.  And that opening sequence for the DVDs: holy cow is that catchy despite being totally nonsense Engrish.  I listened to it every single time and still liked it.  (Some fun resources.)

What I watched in FEBRUARY 2013: Digest Version, part 1 of 2

I don't know why, but I love reading reviews where reviewers get the details wrong.  I mean, I understand that they usually have a lot on their plates and can't go back and fact check, but, wow.  Sometimes they're just really wrong enough to make me wonder if we watched the same thing . . .

b Antique Bakery: I like the manga better for all that it leaves in.  The big-busted news ladies and the things they contributed to the actual plot, for one example.  The fact that Tachibana can't really open up and have a relationship with anyone, for another.  But something of the essential nature of Fumi Yoshinaga's characters is really brought to life here, and that makes it somewhat worthwhile.  The over-the-topness is often pretty funny.

b Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom:  Good English dub.  Lots of unfamiliar voices that are really good.  Shades of Darker than Black, Black Lagoon, and Leon (The Professional).  Apparently made by the same people who created Noir, Madlax, etc.  The difference is that this one has one boy and one girl instead of two girls.

Dark, dark stuff.  A generally good example of tragedy.  Made me think (in both good and bad ways) and did a good job with the melancholy tone.  Some lovely/appropriate music and a good reiteration about the motto: "Live by the sword, die by the sword." 

For a good synopsis, check out Serdar Yegulalp's piece.  "There’s an astonishing amount of plot in Requiem; I’ve barely described half the story in the above synopsis, and I’m still leaving out a lot of details . . ."     

"If you want to live, you have to be reborn.  You are now only allowed to exist for the purpose of killing people."
---
"I'm too young to be this broken."
--- 
"You're just doing the job someone else would do."
--- 
"You live bearing the pain of what you've done.  You don't make mistakes.  You're careful."
--- 
"Once you kill, everything in the world changes."
--- 
"That's it.  I wanted to go back."
"No.  Let me go back to the world you live in."
--- 
"Before I met you, I was a dead man wearing the skin of the living."
--- 
"There's more to being in love than being with each other."

What I watched in JANUARY 2013: Digest Version

b The Betrayal Knows My Name:  Well, that was depressing.  The sticky-sweet, tacked-on ending was a bit unsatisfactory, as well.  I guess it got the mood right, but I feel it could have been a lot better if it had done some slicing and dicing to rearrange things logically and pick up the pace, a bit.  Of course, then it might have caught up to the manga and surpassed it after the 6th episode, and that would have been problematic.  Not that I hated it.  I mean, it wallowed in the angst and sadness and depressing nature of the whole set-up, and that wasn't terrible.  Sometimes it was a bit harder to swallow than the manga because no matter how good your voice actors are, there are some lines they just can't deliver in a way that appeals to anyone outside the rabid fanbase.

b La Corda d'Oro: Well, that was . . . nice.  Kind of pleasant.  Definitely not the worst reverse-harem series I've seen.  And it had WAAAAAY better music than most because they play real classical pieces and have some fun trivia about the pieces and composers.  And, honestly, there is more realism in this series than in most of its kind.  The main character has a real, believable crisis.  Kind of.  Not the crisis I would have had, but still, you know, a crisis.  And though most of the boys are pretty cardboard, some of them had more depth and backstory than your average cardboard cutout. 

b Lunar Legend Tsukihime: I love you for your music.  Your music is worth the price of admission.  Your story is sad and tragic (and sometimes well-nigh incomprehensible, to be honest, but tragically so).  Your music is so sad, too.  It captures that feeling of sadness and longing and sort of half-hopeless attempts at atonement that characterize the show and all its sad and broken, dysfunctional relationships.  And, you know, horror and suspense.  Good stuff.

b Zatch Bell 6: I love Zatch Bell.  It's totally ridiculous and unrepentantly goofy and full of dramatic shonen goodness.  Also, I adore Ponygon (particularly his total hatred of Kiyo and his horsey inability to speak).