skygiants | (no subject)

Last night I finished Gankotsuou! Final analysis: basically I adored the first two-thirds with a great and fannish, but somehow the climax of theshow was not nearly as compelling to me as the setup. And this despite the GIANT MECHA BATTLES OF DRAMA! - okay, actually I will admit that the GIANT MECHA BATTLES OF DRAMA were pretty awesomely hilarious. But I think I liked the show more when it was the "hilarious soap opera Monte Cristo fanfic about Albert and his friends going on picnics and getting into duels over ~true love!~ and rescuing each other from their parents and sleeping with each other's mothers for great awkward" show, rather than the "AND EVERYONE IS IN LOVE WITH ALBERT. Yes, everyone. Yes, even that side character with all of three lines" show.

I also have to admit that part of this is the slightly depressing fact the original book, written in the 1880s, gives its female characters more agency than the anime created in the twenty-first century.

Book!Eugenie: Awesomely hardcore lesbian who, upon being forced into a betrothal she doesn't want by her father, calmly steals her dowry money and successfully elopes with her BFF to become a famous opera singer!
Anime!Eugenie: Starts out as an awesome fast-car-driving risk-seeking piano player with a temper; then reveals that she is in love with Albert and is subsequently trapped in her house, threatened with rape, and almost forced into marriage while waiting for Albert to come rescue her.

(Eugenie makes me saddest, because her initial characterization was cool even in the anime, and then she didn't get to do anything.)

Book!Mercedes: Recognizes the Count from the very beginning, single-handedly negotiates him and Albert out of killing each other, then walks out on Fernand and sets up house by herself in Marseilles
Anime!Mercedes: Watches helplessly as the Count (apparently) kills her son, then begs Fernand to come away with her despite all his crimes. And then gets shot.

Book!Haydee: Is a slave on a cold-blooded quest for VENGEANCE!
Anime!Haydee: Is a slave on a cold-blooded quest for VENGEANCE! . . . who spends most of her time fainting, crying, watching events unfold in horror, and begging the Count not to pursue his VENGEANCE because it feels so awful once you get it. (Note: I like anime!Haydee! But she is significantly less hardcore than what we see of Book!Haydee.)

Book!Valentine: Complains a lot about her awful family situation and her forced marriage to a fairly nice fellow, then is accused of being a murderess. This is not at all active until you compare it to
Anime!Valentine: Who spends approximately the entire series in a coma.

Even the evil ladies have more agency in the book!

Book!Heloise Villefort: Calmly murders three or four people with poison, then, when caught out by her husband, coolly poisons herself and her six-year-old son, causing even the Count to go "whoa."
Anime!Heloise: Poisons one person, then goes crazy and reverts to infancy and spends all her time making sandcastles.

Book!Victoria Danglars: Is rich, plays with money, has lots of love affairs with younger men.
Anime!Victoria Danglars: Is essentially exactly the same, with the addition of a love affair WITH HER SON.

Though I will give Anime!Victoria points for Lucien being approximately ten times as awesome in the anime as he is in the book, which at least implies she has slightly better taste!

Also, while I'm being spoilery . . . I'm sorry, Albert. I am fond of you, but a.) seriously, even Baptistin takes a bullet for you? You are not that awesome! and b.) I am the last person to complain about redeemination through THE POWER OF HUGS, as evidenced by my eternal adoration for Princess Tutu . . . but you, sir, are no Princess Tutu.

It was totally hilarious that the redeemination promptly led to the Count's death by multiple mortal wound buildup, however.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

futuresoon.livejournal.com

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, THE POWER OF HUGS IS CLEARLY THE GREATEST SINGLE MOMENT OF THE SERIES. Except for the moment when you realize "full armor" means "mecha". I realize that Gankutsuou has its problems, but I will love it forever for those two crazy, crazy bits of WTFery. I do admit that the set-up was a bit more epic than the actual end, but hey. POWER OF HUGS.

From:

skygiants

The moment when you realize "full armor" means "mecha" is AMAZING, I will never deny it! As is Franz's death scene (and talk about your lengthy Shakespearian death monologues, seriously! Also talk about your GUILT-WRINGING. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ALBERT!" Albert: "THANKS. RUB IT IN, WHY DON'T YOU.") As is actually Fernand's EPIC CRAZY when he is like "oh well, I guess I have no choice but to DESTROY EVERYTHING WITH MY MECHA SUIT."

But I think Princess Tutu has spoiled me for the power of hugs in anime! Once you have seen a tiny magical girl exorcise a giant ghost knight that has just been hacking away at her by hugging it round the middle, everything else seems less impressive. (Admittedly that is less hilariously slashy than Gankutsuou's epic final hug, but Tutu does make up for it with the many times when the male lead is hanging out with his roommate without pants. Or completely naked.)

From:

futuresoon.livejournal.com

I think it is clear that anything with a vaguely-historical basis that also contains mechas has to be pretty awesome. Trufax.

...I concede that your POWER OF HUGS moment is possibly more epic than Gankutsuou's POWER OF HUGS moment. Possibly.

From:

skygiants

Like zombies, everything's better with mechas! I still really really want to see the anime that's A Little Princess with mechas. I mean. It's A Little Princess!

And that is not even as epic as the series finale! The most hilarious thing is, that that scene is one of the ones that is BASICALLY REPRODUCED FROM THE BOOK. Except on a spaceship. It was indeed hilarious, however. BUT. I think Princess Tutu puts up a pretty good showing with the scene where the one boy grabs the other boy's face, shoves him up against a mirror, shouts "I HATE THIS FACE! AND ITS STUPID FEELINGS!" and then locks him up in the dark abandoned library . . . all because he was furious about him dancing with a giiiiirl! Also, the scene where he carries him out of a class field trip to the middle of a bridge, wraps his arms around him and promises to protect him. And then takes him to a small private cabin and promises to keep everyone else away. While the other boy hangs out in bed. Pantsless. )

From:

futuresoon.livejournal.com

...okay I do have to admit that that is pretty epic. Anime: it really does not care, does it.

From:

skygiants

That's why we love it! Every time you think it cannot get more epic/insane/awesome, it ups the ante. Often with mecha!

From:

futuresoon.livejournal.com

In relation to pantslessness, there is a moment in Hetalia where one (male) character shows up not wearing any (or anything underneath, either), and everyone is all WTF except for that character's (male) BFF who says something along the lines of "Jesus Christ, don't do that in public, here take mine."

There are several reasons I adore Hetalia. But I do have to admit that moments like that are the strongest of them.

From:

skygiants

I have to admit your posts are making me increasingly curious about Hetalia! Offering your pants to a BFF in need, that is clearly TRUE FRIENDSHIP. >:D

(By contrast, the most hilarious thing about the pantslessness in Princess Tutu is that even when the guy is falling out the window quite visibly wearing nothing but a billowy shirt, nobody seems to notice. - well, they notice the falling out the window part.)

From:

futuresoon.livejournal.com

Oh man, Hetalia is so adorably batshit--except for when it suddenly reveals that Lithuania has horrible scars on his back from when he was in a relationship with Russia, or shows the end of the Revolutionary War with England and America facing each other off on a bloody battlefield, or when kid!Italy tearfully tells kid!Holy Roman Empire that he won't join him in his attempts for further conquest because Grandpa Rome's similar endeavors only made him fall in the end. (It is implied that Rome is one of the very few anthropomorphic-countries to have actually died.) But then there is pantslessness or Sweden referring to Finland as his wife or Prussia seizing control of Austria's vital regions. Hetalia: sometimes it gives you whiplash.

(I have to admit that the falling-out-of-the-window would be the first thing I would notice. Perhaps the rest of them were simply too polite to say anything?)

From:

skygiants

I . . . I do like works that balance out the batshit with the occasional flashes of angst . . . it was/is originally a webcomic, right?

(You might think they would get used to it though! Seeing as it happens more than once. Also, a windowledge in a billowing breeze is not a great place to choose not to wear pants, just saying.)

From:

futuresoon.livejournal.com

It's a webcomic, yeah, although a couple volumes of semi-original material (I don't really know) have been published. Due to its strip-focused rather than arc-focused nature, the episodes of the anime (which for awkward reasons is only available online as well) are only five minutes long and mostly comprised of thirty-second bits and pieces. *coughs* The anime's easy to find on Veoh, and scanlations of all the manga are at

hetalia, if, uh, you're interested...

From:

skygiants

The next anime I watch is promised to another (I've been terrible about watching the things my old roommate recommends to me, and I need to make it up to her!) but knowledge of where to find scanlations could definitely come in handy. >.> Thank you!