Exclusive Insanity

So, apparently Touya Akira (Hikaru no Go) and Okuzaki Akira (Mai-HiME) are voiced by the same person.

Not that there are any other similarities in the character designs or anything.

/geek

So Cody and I finally finished off Mai-HiME (My-HiME?) last night. It was a pretty neat series. The animation and the fight scenes were really awesome, and the music was absolutely gorgeous (well, it's Kajiura Yuki, how can it not be?).

( Thoughts )

Overall, I think I would recommend this series to most people. Even if you're not into anime with "fighting and fanservice", I'd advise you to stick it out through the somewhat mediocre first half, because there is a pretty decent payoff in the second half.

Opening video: LINK (this OP sequence is currently one of my top 10 favorites)
BG music example: Mezame (because it's just that good)

I've been thinking about watching Shugo Chara. Actually, I have been eyeing this series for a while and considering whether or not to watch it - the main reason I hesitated was because it was not finished, and looked like it might go on for quite some time. However, I finally remembered to look it up again, and now it looks like it really is done, so maybe I'll give it a watch and see if I like it.

Because I love spoilers (under most circumstances - there are a few cases where I don't want to know what's coming), I went in to see what kind of series I could expect. Mostly I just want to make sure I'm not looking at something overly episodic (read: lots of filler), or with battles that drag on forever, or with characters who are overly whiny or annoying. In some cases, I'll check out what the fandom looks like. This was one of those cases. And - surprise, surprise - I find pairing wars.

Oh, fandom, you never disappoint.

One thing I found interesting about this series is that there are cute, blushy, awkward crushes - most of the characters are about 12, which reminds me of Digimon and CSS and other childrens' shows I adore. I really like cute, blushy, awkward stuff, because it's so freakin' adorable. Funny thing is, from what I could tell, the manga comes pretty darn close to confirming one pairing in the ship wars, and the anime comes pretty darn close to confirming the other one.

It reminds me of Angelic Layer. Are we sure that CLAMP didn't have any involvement in this series?

In any case, although this show seems to have a fair amount of filler - and it's a looooong series - I am drawn by the prospect of a female protagonist at a difficult age with believable insecurities who can still be expected to save the day without constantly having to be rescued.

Plus, it just looks cute.

More book-reading! I have been doing a lot of this lately.

I read the second of Mercedes Lackey's 500 Kingdoms series, and enjoyed it more than the first. The plot held more direction, and I found several of the characters more interesting. The main conflict resolved itself a little too quickly - and almost seemed too easy - but it wasn't as rushed and contrived as in the first book. I like the fantasy world that's been created, and it's a lot of fun to read about. Unfortunately, I had trouble getting into the romance yet again. Not because of the unusual nature of the romance, but more because I wans't feeling the chemistry. The sense of companionship between the main character and her love interest was very nice, and I felt bad for her when she didn't think it would work out, but there was no fascinating pull to the relationship that made me very eager to find out what happened with it. And the second romance in the story seemed altogether too convenient. I liked it, but still.

I remember being enthralled by some of the romances in the Valdemar series when I was younger, so I'm not sure if ML is doing something different now or if my tastes have changed, but I haven't really been that into the love stories in these books. They're nice enough, but nothing really exciting. That would be a deal-breaker on a normal harlequin, but these ones have some other fun things about them that keep me entertained.

I'll probably read the third book eventually, but I decided to take a break and re-read some older books with a similar theme: Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest series.

I still find these pretty enjoyable. They're lively and fun, and have a cast of pretty colorful characters. Perfect for some light reading. I'm already through Dealing with Dragons and Searching for Dragons, and just getting started with Calling on Dragons. Much like the books above, the romance is not all that compelling, but this is okay because it plays such a small part in the overall story that I just don't care much. Plus, the way the characters play off of each other is fun. Simple and light-hearted fantasy like this is just fantastic to read - at least for me.

I've been thinking about doing this post for a while, mainly because my little blurb about FMA:B was so short, but also because I've never really talked about my thoughts on the original series. And I've seen this topic come up a few times and it kind of caught my interest.

I want to state right from the start that I really love both series, for all their flaws. They were both excellent watches, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them. But they are definitely different, not just because of their storylines, but because of the way they did things.

But anyway, I'm going to do a brief comparison of the differences, and what I thought each series did better than the other.

( Here we go )

So, I recently purchased a couple of new books on the kindle. The first two books (combined) in the Adrien English series by Josh Lanyon, and The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey.

I'm really enjoying Adrien English. So much that I've already gone ahead and purchased the third book, since it only took me about a day and a half to get from the beginning of the first book to six chapters into the second (and that's in between work and workouts and shoveling snow). Some of you may not know this about me, but I adore mysteries. The reason this may not be so well-known is because I'm fairly picky about which ones I adore, so I don't read or watch them often. Most of what's out there and popular just isn't to my taste, for whatever reason. I suspect it's a lot to do with whether or not I feel like I'm connecting with the characters. These ones were recommended by several people on my friends list, and the kindle has this handy little feature of allowing you to download free samples of books and try them out before purchasing, so I went ahead and gave them a try. I'm glad I did, because they're excellent.

I'm kind of sad that there are only five books, because I think I'm really going to miss reading about Adrien when I'm through them all. That won't stop me from plowing through them in two or three days, but still. At least Josh Lanyon has a number of other titles I can try out as well.

It's probably a good thing I read The Fairy Godmother before starting on Adrien English, because while it was cute and entertaining, it wasn't nearly as engaging. This one is also the first in a five-book sequence, and basically is a fantasy/romance with some naughty bits. I think it's even published as a harlequin. I've read Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series (most of it, anyway), and her style is famliar to me. The world is interesting, the characters and fun to follow around... the romance fell a little flat. I was with it when she turned him into a donkey. I was with it when they were exchanging insults. I was with it when there was the inappropriate sexual tension. Then it actually started to happen, and... to be honest, I felt a little let down. Something was missing; I'm not sure what, but I felt very 'meh' about the whole thing. Fortunately, since the story was not ALL about the romance, I didn't lose interest completely, but it was still disappointing.

Since these books all seem to be stories about completely different people that just happen to take place in the same world, I'll probably give the next one a try once I've burned through the Adrien English series. Maybe the romance will be more interesting in that one. We'll see.

Last night, Cody and I went to see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

It was really good! I was a little apprehensive after seeing Prince Caspian, but they actually went ahead and did a very good job with the adaption on this one! They changed a whole heck of a lot of things about it, but for the most part, those changes made sense to me (in terms of moving from a book to a movie) and were executed well. Nothing like that whole pointless 'attacking the castle' scene that went nowhere in Prince Caspian.

( More about the changes )

The mention of Jill Pole at the end makes me hopeful that they will make The Silver Chair next. We'll see, I guess.

This is my official Happy Holidays post, since I'm not sure if I'll have time to post anything else before Christmas. I'm off to work, then home to collect the cake, cookies, presents, and Cody's and my overnight bags. And then off to my parents' for Christmas dinner #1, followed by drinking and goofy gift exchange. Then breakfast the next morning, serious gift exchange, and off to Cody's parents' for more gift exchange, Christmas dinner #2, and general shenanigans.

It will be busy, but fun. Hehe.

I'm about five pounds lighter this year than I was at this time last year. I consider this a step in the right direction. The exercise program I've been working hard at is clearly paying off. Around Christmas time, I always pack on some extra baggage, but usually around February I get the motivation to knock it all back off. Now that I'm established in a decent routine (45 minutes per day on the elliptical, 5 days a week), the main thing I need to work on is my eating habits - which are, frankly, terrible.

But that's not something I'm going to worry about over Christmas, of course!

I honestly forgot to do the traditional Christmas card thing this year, but that's more because I've been pretty busy through this season. I don't think I'd have done it even if I did remember. But for all those who I'd normally send cards to, I still love you all!

Hope everyone has a great holiday!

I just noticed I haven't updated since Cody's birthday... wow. I've been slacking. Or busy. A lot of both, really. Mostly Christmas stuff. It snowed here, too, so there's been some time spent shoveling, and of course going out with friends.

The cat has been put on a diet, and seems to be adapting well (as well as can be expected, anyway). The vet recommended reduced intakes of protein and fat so that he can avoid coming down with diabetes. We're hoping it'll help him lose some weight. Because seriously? He's huge. Like a real life Garfield, except not orange. I wouldn't care since he seems happy enough, but I figure he'll end up with joint problems later in life, and that would suck.

In my spare time, I've been reading manga. In particular, I picked up some romance series. The ones I've finished so far are Lovely Complex and Special A.

Lovely Complex was actually a fairly decent shoujo manga series. Like most shoujo manga, it suffers from a certain degree of melodrama, love triangles, unnecessary complications, and - of course - the warm happy stuff (this is what I'm in it for). I wouldn't say it's particularly spectacular or unique (although the concept of taller-girl-shorter-boy isn't exactly a common premise), but it won points with me for having genuine compatibility between the two main characters. Many romances seem content to forget this business of common interests and the spending of time together and what happens during that time, what the two talk about in casual conversation, etc, etc. Lovely Complex had two characters who were very similar and who enjoyed spending time together as friends before romantic feelings were even a question. Granted (as is typical for shoujo manga), they hated each other at first, but the building of the friendship was nice to see as a lead-in to the romance.

Special A... I'd heard good things about this one before I read it, but I don't really know why. Not that it's bad or anything, but what exactly is special about this series? Plucky, clueless girl - check. Boy utterly devoted to her in secret - check. They don't get along - check. Odd side characters - check. Everyone paired off by the end - check (note that this is not exactly a bad thing in my opinion, but it is pretty common). Wacky hi-jicks that may or may not have relevance to the main plot (is there a main plot? It bounced around a lot) - check. Honestly, I... got a little bored before the end of this series. It became too predictable and I didn't feel like I got to know the characters well enough to care much about them. I finished it, but that was more because I was curious about what they'd do to end it than because I really wanted to spend more time reading it.

I'm currently reading Suzuka. It's... kinda meh so far. The constant fanservice is a bit of a turnoff and the main characters tend to irritate me. I may or may not stick it out to the end, but I want to give it a fair chance first.

I think I'm not sleeping well (again). I've been very tired lately. Bleh.

Since I finished Heroic Age, I've been watching Soul Eater and Tetsuwan Birdy Decode during my workouts. Birdy is so far a pretty mediocre series, but I've heard that the sequel series is pretty awesome, so I'm going to try and get through this one so I can watch it and still know what's going on.

Soul Eater... well, this is one of Cody's recent favorites. It's kind of a neat idea and it has some really funny moments, but I find the majority of the characters annoying, which really doesn't help.

I'm really hoping Maka ends up growing on me, since she and Soul are the main characters, but her voice is so irritating and she does the whole bitchily-beating-up-the-guy-for-no-good-reason cliche that bugs me so much - ugh! Soul is... eh. Okay.

Black Star is the single most irritating character in the entire thing. He is a twit! I want to strangle him! It doesn't help that Tsubaki is so damn wishy-washy, either.

Death the Kid is actually kind of an interesting character, despite the whole 'OCD being used as humor' thing. Patty is an annoying bimbo. Liz seems okay so far.

I've been assured that these characters grow and change as the series progresses. I will give it some time, and hope that they stop irritating the crap out of me.

I'm also going to try out Towards the Terra at some point and see if I get into that one. It's supposed to be pretty good, and the animation is kind of pretty, in a 70s anime sort of way. So we'll see.