Exclusive Insanity

So, yeah, almost finished playing Final Fantasy VII. Just the Ruby and Emerald Weapons and the final boss to go (I'll beat them all. Eventually).

I realize I'm probably at least ten years too late playing this game, but whatever. It was good.

Some things to note:

1. Sephiroth is a douche. I mean, seriously? Why does everyone love him so much? I can't wait to take him out. Asshole.

2. I got to like Cloud much, much more after finding out his REAL backstory (what can I say? I'm a sucker for the underdog)

3. AT THE END OF THE FIRST DISC? WTF? I mean, I knew it happened, but ONLY ONE DISC IN? Also, I cried...

4. Red XIII kicks so much ass. He pretty well never left my party.

5. I think I would be perfectly happy to never see another Chocobo again...

6. The Gold Saucer music is not that good the first time you hear it, much less the millionth.

7. Must. Read. Fanfic...

Sooo, FFVII fans on my FL. Cloud/Tifa? Cloud/Aeris? Cloud/someone else? Convince me!

I am currently five episodes into an anime series called No.6. I was going to wait until the series had finished airing and I'd seen all of it before I posted about it, but I changed my mind after stumbling across this article.

I think this really hits on what I find so refreshing about this series, and why I think most of the people on my friends list would probably enjoy it. The series is classified as science fiction. Does it seem like it's leaning towards a relationship between its two (male) protagonists? Yes. But like the review I linked to says, this is a fairly mainstream sci-fi series that doesn't bill itself as shounen-ai. I think this is probably the first time I've seen an anime that seems likely to contain a m/m relationship but doesn't really define itself by that fact.

Regardless of whether it goes there in the end, I think this series will turn out to be a pretty good one. The BG music is good, the animation is good, the story is engaging. If it doesn't pull its punches regarding its main relationship, it could be something awesome.

For those interested, you can view the opening video of the No. 6 anime here.

Back from Cos & Effect. It was a lot of fun, and way too short, as usual. The con was small-ish and a little different (it was a costume convention rather than an anime convention, so I found it lacking in a number of ways, but that's just because my interest in cosplay is pretty mild). The vendors were meh - but Twinbells Doujinshi was there, so yay! I spent all of my money at her booth, basically. I even found two Takumi/Akira doujinshi!

Other than that, we visited the mall and I got some manga at Sakura Media. The manga/anime sales at the actual con were pretty well non-existant, but Sakura Media had a decent selection. Cody and I even picked up some new games, so we'll be trying those out shortly.

This week is pretty well going to end up being devoted to cleaning up the house and yard since we're having a BBQ on Saturday as sort of a late birthday party for me. I have to go buy burgers, hot dogs, and fixings at some point as well... plus snacks... and cake... Heh.

Anyway, it will be good! Hopefully.

The official birthday post. Mainly made to post the adorable comic that Cody drew for me as a present: http://messenjari.deviantart.com/art/Love-Life-251862144

Our first date is in there! It is so cute, and I teared up reading it, because this was such a sweet gift.

My husband is wonderful.

ZOMG.

Korra Trailer

SO MUCH WIN.

More Korra info here and here.

WHY IS THIS NOT OUT YET?

I posted the new chapter of Game Over. I figured I've been obsessing over it and whether it was good enough and if it fit properly and if everything worked and whatever else for long enough. Up it went. FictionPress seems determined to make formatting as difficult as possible. It's kind of annoying. But at least it's done now until I can crank out the next chapter.

This chapter got longer than I expected. The next chapter might end up a little short. We'll see how it goes, I guess. I just wish my motivation to work on this was stronger. Bleh.

I've been developing a new story in my head for a long time now, but it's not getting my attention until I've finished either Game Over or Piece of a Legend - preferably both. I really want them finished, but I'm determined to do them as much justice as I can.

In other news, I finished the Baccano OVAs, which basically served the purpose of tying off some loose ends but were still fun to watch. I'm working on Durarara now, which is even more fun. You can tell they came from the same creator.

I've been reading Jane Austen. I plowed through Love & Friendship, and then read Lady Susan (which was kind of fun) and The Watsons (now I have to pick a continuation). I'm working on Sandition right now, and also slowly watching the BBC version of Pride & Prejudice.

Cody and I finished all of the Harry Potter DVDs I bought, so I guess now the only thing left is to go see the last one in theaters when it comes out. Sweet.

So, yesterday evening I finished watching Mahou Shoujo (or Puella Magi, as some prefer) Madoka Magica. This was recommended to me by herongale, so I was fairly confidant that it would be good. It's also a magical girl anime and in some ways is typical of the genre, but it contains numerous elements that I have never seen in any magical girl series anywhere.

( What wish would you make in exchange for your soul? (spoilers) )

I'd recommend this series to most people. The opening video can be found here, although it is not really representative of what the series is actually like. This scene that is shown at the beginning of the series is probably better. And just as a bonus, here are some magical girl transformation sequences.

I would also like to note that the BG music is done by Yuki Kajiura, and is therefore made of awesome.

So I've been reading more fantasy/romance ebooks - surprise, surprise. That's been my reading material of choice for quite a while now.

I read 'A Matter of Magic' by Patricia C. Wrede, which is two books combined: 'Mairelon the Magician' and 'Magician's Ward'. I like Wrede's writing style. She has a light but engaging way of describing things. Plus, she seems to have a knack for creating appealing characters (at least, in my opinion). Kim was a great heroine, cynical and cautious, and made a good foil for Mairelon, who had more of an "it'll work out somehow" attitude. I really felt for Hunch, though, between the two of them. The romance was okay - nothing spectacular - but that wasn't the focus of these books, as is usual for Wrede. Overall, this was a good read.

After that, I read 'The Wide-Awake Princess' by E.D. Baker. This one wasn't as good as 'A Matter of Magic', but it had its moments. I didn't feel like I got to know the characters beyond a surface level, and conflict felt like it resolved itself a little too easily. But the book was light-hearted and never seemed to aspire towards great depth, so I think it succeeded with what it set out to do. Again, the romance was kind of 'meh'; I didn't really feel the chemistry between the two. But oh well.

I downloaded some samples for books by Shannon Hale, but didn't feel like buying them afterwards. Something about the style just didn't grab me, I guess. Still looking for new authors, but I'll probably be giving Wrede's 'Thirteenth Child' a go if nothing comes up.

I also read a manga series called 'Power!!!' (I think this has been translated to 'Girl Got Game' in the NA release), which wasn't bad. It was a silly series with a lot of decent comedy scenes. Nothing too deep or meaningful, but generally a lot of fun to read. And the main characters didn't annoy me, which is unusual for most of the shoujo series I've read lately.

Lately I've been on the lookout for fantasy books with female protagonists who get involved in adventure with some cute romance on the side. I've downloaded a number of samples and I'm slowly working my way through them (if I like the sample, I'll buy the book and read it, which then sometimes means buying more books by the same author and reading them, so this process is going slowly).

I just finished reading a couple of books by Sherwood Smith, and I felt like talking about them - hence this post.

Now, I loved Sherwood Smith when I was younger (still do, as her writing style appeals to me a lot) for her 'Wren' books. Wren was my hero when I was about 12 or so. I'd only read the three at the time - now I've read 'Wren Journeymage' as well, which I didn't like as much as the others (but it was still a decent read). One thing I didn't notice at the time but which I have now come to realize is that I like her books that much more when nothing exciting is going on.

Does that seem weird? It sure does to me. It wasn't so apparent with the Wren books (there are so many action sequences that I adored), but with the ones I'm going to talk about now, it became obvious.

The first was 'A Posse of Princesses'. This is a book about a young princess with some unrealistic ideas about romance who gets invited to a gathering of her peers for the first time with the hope of potentially marrying this rich prince. She makes a number of friends, and there's a twist with the prince that I found obvious pretty much from the time she arrives (the mileage of other readers may vary). And, well, the scenes where she dances and chats and makes friends and basically engages in court activities are fantastic and engaging. Then the plot starts to unravel, and my connection to the story began to unravel with it. The main character becomes less likeable. The book becomes harder to read. I found myself skimming long passages. Then we go back to the ending, where the romance is resolved... and I found myself shaking my head and saying out loud, 'What?' Who could possibly think this is a good way to test whether a romance will hold up? Bleh.

Anyway, I still feel it's a pretty good book, but it's not a re-read.

The next was 'Crown Duel/Court Duel' - two books in one. And what a difference between the two! Crown Duel was so frustrating to get through for me... There were flashes of cleverness here and there, little golden moments that reminded me why I enjoyed Smith's work, but for the most part it was just hard to read. The heroine was almost completely unlikeable. She was abrasive, willfully ignorant, and - well - incompetent. Not saying I'd do any better in that situation, but it was almost embarrassing to read about this girl because of the way she thinks and acts. I think I read the next book mostly out of curiosity (and because I already had it, as they were part of the same big ebook purchase), but it ended up being a much better read. Suddenly Mel was someone much less abrasive (although she still had moments that made me roll my eyes) and more interesting to read about. And this book is about 90% non-action. The action sequence at the end was even pretty decent, and it meshed well with the story. The romance seemed believable (and was actually decently developed, although it was easy to figure out who was sending the letters). And the characters were interesting and fun to read about. All in all, a vast improvement.

One thing that struck me in both 'A Posse of Princesses' and 'Crown Duel/Court Duel' is the clear dividing line that seems to exist between women and men. I'm sure Smith didn't set out to do this (I don't remember it from the 'Wren' books - maybe I need to re-read them), but it felt like the women in the books were naive, ignorant things while the men were worldly and knowledgeable but still were willing to humor these poor uneducated and vulnerable women because they had spirit and were nice and honest and pure. I didn't care much for that. The books were good, but they're not going on my favorites list.

I'm moving on to a new author now (and I have a lot of samples to get through), but I'm still open for recs on fantasy/romance with fun female protagonists!

I don't update very often any more, do I? Well... work and cosplay preparation are sucking up a lot of my time, but I've also been working on another fanfic. Yes, for Mai-HiME. And I have more fanfic ideas too! What the hell? When I was starting this series, I'd have never predicted that I would write fanfic for it. I love this one pairing a little too much, I'm thinking.

Oh, and for those who are wondering what the heck is this series that is consuming all of my attention, here are some pretty cool music videos (Note: unless you LOVE spoilers, I don't recommend watching them if you believe that you may one day watch this series).

Blow them away
Mortal Kombat (I will never not love this song)